Free Republic

Donald Trump was caught making an eyebrow-raising joke about the Syrian president's marital status at the White House this week. But the US President immediately lowered the tone by giving Sharaa a spritz of $249-a-bottle Trump Cologne before jokingly asking him how many wives he has. In an exchange captured on video, Trump said: 'This is men's fragrance,' as he sprayed some of the scent on Sharaa's beard while the Syrian leader smiled nervously. 'It's the best fragrance,' the 79-year-old said, adding that a second bottle of the perfume was for Sharaa's wife. 'How many wives? One?' Trump asked, as...

Joey Barton has been found guilty of posting grossly offensive messages on social media. Barton was found guilty by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court of six counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety. During his trial at Liverpool Crown Court, the ex-Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder, 43, said he believed he was the victim of a "political prosecution" and denied his aim was "to get clicks and promote himself". But the jury decided Barton, who also played for England in 2007, had "crossed the line between free speech and a crime"...

Fox News host Laura Ingraham urged Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and other Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster, lest the GOP “get wiped out” in the next year’s midterm elections. The federal government has been shut down since Oct. 1, after the Senate could not agree on a bill to keep the government funded beyond September. While the GOP controls the chamber 53-47, 60 votes are necessary to invoke cloture to break filibusters and advance legislation. In exchange for the requisite votes, Democrats are demanding that Republicans agree to extend healthcare premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which are...

We have met the enemy of civilization, and it’s women. Not individual women, mind you. Because any given individual woman can possess masculine characteristics. And certainly not homemakers — those are the women who are doing the job they’ve done for millenniums, taking care of the family. No, the challenge to civilization is presented, in the view of Helen Andrews, a writer and editor who served as a senior editor at The American Conservative, by the women who are entering the workplace in such great numbers that they now make up large portions or majorities of their professions. In that...

California Governor Gavin Newsom holds an early edge over Vice President JD Vance among young male voters for the 2028 presidency, according to new polling from a Republican-affiliated firm. The latest League of American Workers/TIPP survey, conducted October 22-28, shows that among young men, 38 percent would vote for Newsom compared to 33 percent for Vance.

President Donald Trump's use of sweeping tariffs faced sharp questioning at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, in a case with major implications for the president's agenda and the global economy. A majority of justices, including several conservatives, expressed doubts about the White House's justification of the import duties, which the president has said are necessary to restore America's manufacturing base and fix its trade imbalance. The measures are being challenged by a number of small businesses and a group of states, which contend that the president has overstepped his authority in imposing the levies, which are in effect a tax....

California voters approved new congressional district boundaries Tuesday, delivering a victory for Democrats in the state-by-state redistricting battle that will help determine which party wins control of the U.S. House in 2026 and, with it, the power to thwart or advance President Donald Trump’s agenda. The approval of Proposition 50 gives Democrats a shot at winning as many as five additional seats, just enough to blunt Texas Republicans’ move to redraw their own maps to pick up five GOP seats at Trump’s urging. Texas’ move and California’s response have kicked off a flurry of redistricting efforts around the country, with...

Top Republicans on Monday seized on House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ endorsement of Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York, casting the self-described democratic socialist as the new face of the Democratic Party ahead of next year’s midterm elections. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called Jeffries’ endorsement a “seismic shift in politics.” “We saw our clearest sign yet that this radical insurgent movement in the Democrat Party is succeeding, and they are ending what has always been known as the Democrat Party in America,” Johnson told reporters in the Capitol. “After a monthslong pressure campaign from the far left, House...

Mark Carney has delivered a sharp insult to Donald Trump after trade negotiations were canceled over an ad featuring former president Ronald Reagan slamming tariffs. Trump hit Canada with an additional 10 percent tariff and terminated crucial trade talks last week after he was upset by the commercial which aired during the first two games of the baseball World Series. The tariff commercial used an excerpt of a speech given by Reagan in 1987 to criticize US tariffs during Friday and Saturday's match ups between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. Speaking about Trump's spat at the ASEAN...

Life was never the same for New Yorkers after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, with every resident coping with the trauma and devastation of that day. But for Muslim New Yorkers there was an added burden: the suspicion and sometimes physical harm now lurking around every corner. Vigilante violence against Arabs and Muslims exploded across the city and around the country. In what feels very much like a precursor to today’s ruthless ICE raids, mass arrests swept up Muslims on flimsy immigration pretexts, with many of them being held under extremely abusive conditions. The contemporary national security state...

Robert De Niro on Thursday called on people to take to the streets to protest President Trump in an upcoming “No Kings Day” on Oct. 18. “The original No Kings protest was 250 years ago,” De Niro said in a video shared on the Indivisible Project’s Instagram page. “Americans decided they didn’t want to live under the rule of King George III. They declared their independence and fought a bloody war for democracy.” “We’ve had two and a half centuries of democracy since then, often challenging, sometimes messy, always essential,” the actor continued. “And we fought in two world wars...

President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that Spain be expelled from NATO over its failure to match the higher defense spending requirement he has engineered. "We had one laggard, it was Spain," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "They have no excuse not to do this, but that's all right. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO frankly." In June, the 32-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreed to massively boost defense spending over the next decade under pressure from Trump, who at the time threatened to punish Madrid on trade for resisting the new target of five percent of...

President Donald Trump will send around 200 troops to Israel to help support and monitor the Gaza peace deal, US officials said on Thursday. The announcement came as Benjamin Netanyahu's government formally approved the agreement to return the remaining hostages from Gaza. A ceasefire will go into effect within 24 hours of the cabinet meeting when Israeli troops will also begin to withdraw from Gaza along an agreed-upon line. Hamas will release the remaining living and dead Israeli hostages within 72 hours after that. Once they are returned, Israel will free 250 Palestinians serving life sentences and 1,700 Gazans who...

The longer the government stays shut down, the shorter House Republicans' patience seems to be getting with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). Why it matters: Johnson's decision to keep his chamber on an indefinite break in the middle of a government shutdown isn't sitting well with some in his conference — and that could put pressure on the speaker to change course. From frustration over the stalled vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, to questions about whether — as Johnson argues — the chamber really has no business to attend to in Washington, GOP lawmakers are beginning to get antsy....

Keir Starmer has condemned an Israeli minister’s decision to invite Tommy Robinson to his country in the wake of the terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue. Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of diaspora and combating antisemitism, revealed on Friday that he had asked the “British patriot” – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – to visit the country. He said: “Tommy is a courageous leader on the front line against radical Islam. “At a time when Jews across Europe face rising antisemitism, it is vital to strengthen bonds with allies who refuse to be silent.” The decision has already been condemned...

French president Emmanuel Macron has been seen laughing as the leaders of Albania and Azerbaijan mock US president Donald Trump for claiming to have ended wars involving their countries. At the European Political Community meeting in Copenhagen, Macron was seen chatting with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was seen storming over in mock fury, and telling Macron: 'You should make an apology … to us because you didn't congratulate us on the peace deal that President Trump made between Albania and Azerbaijan'. The comment referenced Trump's repeated confusion of Armenia and Albania when discussing the long-held...

French President Emmanuel Macron said it was out of line for Charles Kushner, the U.S. ambassador to France and the father of President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, to publicly accuse him of taking insufficient action to combat antisemitism, and for him to link France's foreign policy positions to domestic incidents of violence against Jews in France. In a letter he published in the Wall Street Journal to Macron in August, Kushner wrote that he had "deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it." "Public statements haranguing...

DEARBORN HTS, Mich. (FOX 2) - The Dearborn Heights Police Department is unveiling a new officer-designed police patch that will be the first one in the country to feature Arabic. Police confirmed to FOX 2 on Wednesday that the department has a new optional patch that officers can wear as part of their uniform. The patch includes the Michigan seal in the center with the words ‘Dearborn Heights Police’ written in both English and Arabic. According to police, the patch was created by Officer Ermily Murdoc, who designed it to reflect and honor the diversity of our community. Dearborn Heights'...

King Charles and Queen Camilla will be hosting Donald Trump’s state visit later this month, and it's being said, the king has his concerns, but even so, he and Camilla will be gracious hosts, says one royal expert. Charles is reportedly nervous that Trump will speak out of turn during the visit, addressing immigration issues like he did with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, which we inquired about when speaking to Brittani Barger, co-founder of Royal News. According to Barger, if Charles is concerned about Trump speaking out of turn, he has good reason, but no matter what, the monarch will...

Longtime Republican operative Karl Rove said on Tuesday that crime is a “big problem” for the Democratic Party and warned that some within the party, including New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, don’t understand how their posture on the issue hurts the party’s “label.” “This is a big problem for the Democrats. The Democrats don’t seem to understand — certain Democrats, like the socialist running for mayor of New York — do not seem to understand the problems that this represents for their party, and their party’s label. They only need to look to recent history to see how...