Free Republic

President Donald Trump said he doesn’t care what the polls and the “fake news” are showing: he is confident the Republicans are going to shock the world — and the Democrats, in particular — and perform much better than expected in the 2026 midterm elections. The president struck an optimistic tone while rallying for the GOP in Vandalia, Ohio on Saturday evening. He said Republicans will be just fine, as long as conservatives don’t stay at home on Election Day. “They’re in for a big surprise. It’s very simple: You gotta get out and vote. You gotta get out. You...

President Donald Trump again insulted Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, calling him “a pain in the a**” before wondering aloud, “Is he here, by the way?” The president has used similar lines countless times before, including at his Republican midterm convention in Dallas, where he declared, “He may not dress right. He may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best-looking guy I’ve ever seen, but you know what he is? He’s the greatest attorney general in America, and he deserves to be your next senator.” His latest remarks came as he returned to Denton, Texas,...

Sayer Ji@sayerjigmi1/ 86% of Americans told the Washington Post they want every Epstein file released.Nearly 3.5 million pages already are. But the problem is that almost no one has read or thoroughly evaluated them.I’ve spent nine months reading them, with my team. Here is what’s in the public record, with the documents:Sep 27, 2026 Sayer Ji@sayerjigmi·Sep 272/ The files are not mainly a story about one man’s crimes, though those are documented and monstrous.They show finance, philanthropy, science, and state power operating as one, with a convicted predator at the switchboard for a decade after his 2008 conviction.My primary conclusion...

Eight US Marines were injured in an Iranian attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz on September 14, NBC reported Sunday evening, citing three US sources. The Marines were not seriously injured by the Iranian cruise missile hit on the vessel, but they sustained smoke inhalation and showed symptoms of concussions, including headaches, according to the report. The Marines were not on a US Navy ship, but the officials did not share what type of ship it was. All eight service members returned to duty soon after the attack.

President Donald Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping if he would like to buy American weapons during the communist politician’s three day trip to the States last week, according to U.S. Ambassador to China David Purdue. The ambassador shared the surprising news during an interview on Fox News Sunday with anchor Shannon Bream. “President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world.’ He actually asked President Xi if he would like to buy some, at one point,” Purdue said. The comment came as he defended Trump’s relationship with Taiwan, with Purdue arguing Trump has...

An Iowa judge on Wednesday threw out President Trump’s lawsuit over the Des Moines Register’s final 2024 poll and declared that even a wildly off election-eve survey is the kind of “erroneous statement” the First Amendment must protect. RedState readers will surely remember the poll in question. The Register published a wild outlier three days before the presidential election, suggesting Kamala Harris held a lead over her Republican opponent in Iowa. The Hawkeye State was not considered competitive. And it wasn't. Trump went on to win the state by 13 points. It was a 16-point miss that Trump described as...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told a local television news station in Shreveport, Louisiana, this week that President Donald Trump needs to bring the war in Iran “to a resolution.” “It’s been a priority and an objective of every administration, for nearly 50 years, to ensure that Iran didn’t have a nuclear capability. Now that’s done. Operation Epic Fury was an epic success,” Johnson said dutifully, later adding: The world is safer because of it. But now we’ve got to bring that to a resolution. And the Strait of Hormuz not being open affects commerce. It directly affects gas prices...

Vice President JD Vance was reportedly the anonymous White House source behind a story that President Donald Trump’s administration is now pointing to as evidence for why Politico deserved to lose its White House access. The revelation, first reported Wednesday by Oliver Darcy’s Status, adds a striking wrinkle to the administration’s defense of its Friday decision to boot Politico from the White House grounds alongside CNN and MS NOW. The Washington Post reported just minutes earlier that the White House had identified six Politico stories in a Tuesday letter laying out its case against the outlet, accusing it of reporting...

President Trump said on Sunday that he has agreed to convert plans for a massive triumphal arch into a "top grade Military Complex," equipped with snipers and drone storage. "At the strong request of the United States Military, and for National Security purposes, I have agreed to convert the magnificent Triumphal Arch, planned since the Civil War Era many years ago, at the Receptive Circle adjoining the Arlington Memorial Bridge, into a top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch," Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Work on the 250-foot-tall arch was expected to begin this month, with plans to...

Modern investment strategy today includes something called "direct indexing". Direct indexing holds a broad range of individual stocks rather than mutual funds or ETFs. This is a method of investing in a broad market - rather than picking a few stocks based on insider information. A computer algorithm automatically balances these accounts based on whatever investment strategy has been programed. I have seen investment accounts from single individuals with literally thousands of trades. Their accounts looks like a day trader on speed. The idea that Trump is making each of these trades himself is stupid. The Democrats are using this...

Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) has taken direct aim at President Donald Trump and his immigration crackdown in a new re-election ad, warning that the Hispanic voters who helped return him to the White House in 2024 now feel “betrayed.” The congresswoman, who endorsed Trump in 2024 and urged Hispanic voters to back him, delivered the unusually direct message to the president as she campaigns for another term in her Miami-area district. “Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. In July, 50% of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal record. Be careful...

New photos obtained exclusively by CBS News reveal for the first time the widespread damage and destruction of buildings and vehicles at multiple U.S. positions across the Middle East, as a result of Iranian missile and drone attacks. The Defense Department's inspector general this week released a fresh report on the war in Iran that revealed "equipment losses" worth up to $3.7 billion — including nearly 60 aircraft. In a first-of-its-kind mandatory report to Congress, the inspector general added that U.S. Central Command reported Iranian strikes at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan.

The contractor that renovated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has told the Trump administration that errors in its own work and flaws in the repair plan, not vandalism, caused the pool’s new blue liner to peel and break loose, according to government documents. President Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals wielding knives or box cutters for damage to the pool’s “American flag blue” liner, even after the Justice Department dropped charges that it had brought against people accused of vandalizing the national landmark. But the documents, which have not previously been reported, make clear that the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, found...

Stocks dropped Thursday after U.S. oil prices topped $100 a barrel, amid growing fears of higher inflation from a prolonged war in the Middle East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 315 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.5% too. Higher oil prices continued to weigh on sentiment, as the war between the U.S. and Iran stretched into a seventh month. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for October jumped above $100 per barrel. Futures for the international benchmark Brent crude for November delivery spiked above $105 a barrel. The jump in oil prices...

President Trump pledged a $5,000 payout to U.S. adults on Wednesday, but only if Republicans hold onto their majority in Congress come November. “Here is my promise: if the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them … because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,” he said at the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas, Texas. The legality of this disbursal is unclear. There are about 270 million adults in the U.S. Trump told attendees Wednesday that...

Crude oil prices jumped 3% on Wednesday as fighting between the U.S. and Iran escalates in the Persian Gulf, raising investors fears that energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz will fall. Brent futures were up 3% at $100.86 a barrel by 8:29 a.m. ET. It is the first time the international benchmark has crossed the $100 threshold since July. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures traded 3% higher to $95.84. The U.S. military destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers Tuesday in retaliation for attempted attacks on an American warship. The U.S. warship successfully evaded Iranian attack and no American personnel...

With midterms rapidly approaching, Republicans had appeared to catch a break on the economy. After a year in which the war with Iran sent gas prices soaring and pushed inflation to multi-year highs, both June and July’s Consumer Price Index came in tame. Even grocery prices slipped for the first time in months. But then President Trump returned to his longtime obsession: tariffs. Indeed, last weekend, talks between the White House and Canada collapsed, and Trump immediately slapped 50 percent tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Canadian goods, reviving what the Wall Street Journal called “The Dumbest Trade War...

Artificial intelligence data centers have been a hot topic in Utah this summer, and reforms could be on the way. Gov. Spencer Cox told reporters at his Aug. 20 monthly news conference to expect efforts to change the approval process and additional regulation for data centers when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill in January. Central to that move toward reform, he said, was the contentious Stratos Project in Box Elder County, which experienced incredible public pushback earlier this year. “The process was not good, and the MIDA process, especially,” he said. “I think we need major reform when it comes...

For years, the United Arab Emirates has been a lifeline for Iran’s sanctions-battered economy, despite political tensions between the two countries. But that relationship was imperiled on Tuesday, when the Emirates announced a total embargo on trade and transactions with the Islamic republic. If the threat holds, Iran would lose not just a major market for its goods but a portal to the world economy, analysts say. The embargo highlights both the depth of the economic relationships that Iran has cultivated across the Gulf region and the strain they are now under. The war that the United States and Israel...

Bond yields climbed Thursday, erasing most of the pullback they saw the previous day after the Treasury Department announced an intervention aimed at easing pressure on longer-dated government debt. The yield on the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond — the primary focus of the accelerated buyback — was up more than 4 basis points at 5.236%. Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasurys — the main benchmark for mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt — moved more than 4 basis points higher to 4.696%. The 10- and 30-year yield levels were right around the level they held before the 8:30 a.m. announcement...