Free Republic

Did President Trump seek authority from Congress to attack Venezuela? The short answer is no. There is no indication that Donald Trump sought or received advance authorization from Congress before ordering the strikes. Last month, Trump publicly stated that he did not believe congressional approval was required to launch attacks against targets in Venezuela, including strikes on land. He said he might brief Congress but would not seek formal legal authorization. In December, Republicans, joined by a small number of Democrats, voted down two separate War Powers resolutions in the House of Representatives that would have required congressional approval for...

Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who had earlier questioned whether the U.S. attack was constitutional, said in a X post on Saturday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him the U.S. operation "was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant."..."This action likely falls within the president's inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack," Lee added.

In an early sign of congressional concern about the U.S. operation, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah questioned President Trump's authority to use the military in Venezuela without authorization from Congress. "I look forward to learning what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force," he said in a social-media post.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) is pushing back on the idea that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare, has made health insurance costs more affordable, saying, “Obamacare makes everyone else poor.”Lee shared a graphic, first posted by President Trump on Truth social, showing how major health insurance company stocks have performed since the ACA was enacted in 2010 to November 2025.The seven major health insurance companies depicted on the graph show gains of anywhere from 414% to 1177% in their stock prices between March 2010 and November 2025.Health insurance companies are making money hand over fist—not because they’ve discovered...

More than a month after President Donald Trump designated Antifa a domestic terror organization, a group of senators is proposing legislation to codify the president’s executive order. The Stop ANTIFA Act has been introduced by U.S. Sens. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, which would direct the National Joint Terrorism Task Force to investigate Antifa. The president’s executive order designating Antifa a domestic terror organization came a week after The Center Square posed the question to Trump in the Oval Office, following a rise in left-wing violence, including the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk....

President Donald Trump's tariffs, scheduled to increase on August 1, could result in significantly higher prices for a range of food groups. This is according to an analysis published Monday by the bipartisan Tax Foundation, which found that these will impact nearly 75 percent of U.S. food imports, which it said will "likely lead to higher food prices for consumers." Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment. Why It Matters It has repeatedly been warned that the higher import taxes implemented as a result of the Trump administration's economic agenda will increase costs for U.S. businesses...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was ripped on social media after she called President Trump “a rapist” online — with many suggesting a tweet from the Congresswoman was grounds for a defamation lawsuit from the commander in chief. Ocasio-Cortez sparked outrage when she tweeted Friday about Trump and the release of files related to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. “Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X, apparently referring to Trump and the 2023 civil trial where he was found liable of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll....

After widespread public opposition, Sen. Mike Lee says he is withdrawing his controversial proposal to sell millions of acres of public lands. The amendment to the national "Big, Beautiful Bill" could have made more than 18 million acres of land eligible for sale in Utah alone Lee later revised the proposal to remove Forest Service land from it, and to only include Bureau of Land Management property within five miles of "population centers." On Saturday, Utah's Senior Senator announced that he is withdrawing the federal land sales from the bill completely.

Senator Mike Lee suggests the Senate can change the “Big Beautiful Bill” to be more “AGGRESSIVE” with the DOGE spending cuts.

Chicago’s Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson, the least popular mayor in the country, went on a rant Thursday and called President Donald Trump a racist “monster” for investigating the mayor’s city hiring practices. Johnson, a self-professed “progressive,” raised eyebrows last weekend when he told a congregation of churchgoers that he is proud to have filled all his top posts with black people. His comment spurred a federal probe into his hiring practices under the suspicion that his discriminatory, race-based hiring might violate civil rights and equal opportunity laws. In response to the investigation, Johnson lashed out, and, as he typically does,...

Almost six years after the suspicious “suicide” of Jeffrey Epstein, notorious billionaire financier and pedophile, his most famous accuser has also died. Virginia Giuffre, who claimed, as a minor, she was forced into sexual acts with both Epstein and Prince Andrew, Duke of York, reportedly died by “suicide” last Thursday. At the age of sixteen, Giuffre said she was recruited to work for Epstein by his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in December of 2021 on five counts of assisting Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Salt Lake City, UT – Today, Americans for Prosperity – Utah (AFP-UT) applauded Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) for voting to advance the budget resolution in the Senate, a necessary step in extending President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This resolution allows congressional committees to begin drafting legislation to extend the 2017 tax cuts and ensure hardworking families and small businesses are not burdened with unnecessary tax hikes.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is renewing efforts to fully eliminate the Transportation Security Administration, accusing the federal agency of inefficiency and invading travelers’ privacy. Lee, along with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., introduced the Abolish the TSA Act on Thursday, which would dissolve the TSA and establish a separate Office of Aviation Security Oversight to manage airport security. The office would operate completely under the Federal Aviation Administration and transfer security activities and equipment to private companies instead.

President Donald Trump faces a bevy of district court judges issuing restraining orders and injunctions blocking his executive actions, and Josh Hammer suggests the president take a leaf out of Abraham Lincoln’s book on the issue. Trump has responded to the orders with calls for Congress to impeach lower court judges or restrain them in other ways, and observers on the Left have claimed Trump’s actions are creating a constitutional crisis. Chief Justice John Roberts publicly chided Trump over the judicial impeachment call. Hogwash, says Hammer, a lawyer who clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit....

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., took NBC News to task for "selectively omitting" a key part of the 14th Amendment in a question about birthright citizenship during an interview with President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday… "All persons born … in the United States, *and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,* shall be citizens of the United States," Lee wrote on X, highlighting the missing words in asterisks. "Those words matter," he added. The senator continued to break down the issue in a lengthy 12-part thread. "Congress has the power to define what it means to be born in the United States ‘and...

Mike Lee @BasedMikeLee We’re going to confirm @PeteHegseth!

Senator Mike Lee of Utah has an excellent idea to stop Democrat Bob Casey from stealing Pennsylvania’s Senate race. Despite losing to Republican David McCormick in an extremely tight race, and the race being called by multiple networks, Casey and his cronies are working behind the scenes to try and steal the seat in the way that Democrats specialize in. As the race heads to an automatic recount, Casey and Democratic operative Marc Elias are trying to ensure that illegal ballots are counted in order to try and claim victory. These efforts have been criticized by people across the political...

CNN last week revealed an excerpt from a new book in which Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized both Donald Trump and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). The headline said, “McConnell says ‘MAGA movement is completely wrong’ and Reagan ‘wouldn’t recognize’ Trump’s GOP.” With the election less than a week away, such attacks are not only divisive but harm the Republican Party’s chances of success. Only a few hours before CNN published this article, McConnell gave this quote to a Fox News reporter: “I’m still a Traditional Republican... there are some on my side now who don’t sound that way. I'm going...

Utah Senator Mike Lee criticized Vice President Kamala Harris and other top Democrats for comparing Donald Trump to Hitler, arguing that such rhetoric invites attacks on the former president. “I find it troubling,” he told The Daily Wire on Thursday, “especially because, to me, it feels like trolling for assassins.” “When you’re constantly calling him Hitler,” Lee said, “that’s really dangerous.” “I’m not one who thinks that no one can ever make a Hitler comparison or at least draw upon it, but when you identify him as much as they have with Hitler, you characterize him that way, it tends...

But if Johnson heeds Trump’s request, Washington would head for a shutdown just weeks before the November elections. There is no appetite in the House GOP for that, with members worrying a shutdown — or even the threat of one — could harm their reelection chances. “Senate Democrats refuse to pass the SAVE Act, which is shameful, and obviously the American people should hold them accountable for that. But we’re not shutting the government down with 54 days until Election Day,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said. Asked on Fox Business about the political consequences of a government shutdown in the...