Free Republic

Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) says the Trump administration should drop nuclear negotiations with Iran and finish off the country's nuclear facilities with a military strike. "Waste that s—t," the Pennsylvania Democrat told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview on Wednesday. "You're never going to be able to negotiate with that kind of regime that has been destabilizing the region for decades already, and now we have an incredible window, I believe, to do that, to strike and destroy Iran's nuclear facilities." Fetterman dismissed the foreign policy experts who warn that striking Iran would lead to the outbreak of...

Prodded by the Euro-Globalists like UK’s Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron, and cheered by the world’s USAID-media, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky keeps undercutting the peace process with his grandstanding, making all kinds of demands that he will never get. Besides torpedoing today’s negotiations, the Kiev leader may have provoked the US Donald J. Trump’s administration one too many times, risking an American withdrawal from negotiations that would guarantee a much faster collapse of his combat capabilities on his losing war. Trump took to Truth Social to blast Zelensky’s behavior after another rug-pull from him.

President Trump said Japan is set to kick off tariff negotiations with the US in Washington on Wednesday — becoming one of the first countries to test his willingness to relent on the sweeping tariffs. “Japan is coming in today to negotiate Tariffs, the cost of military support, and ‘TRADE FAIRNESS’,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “I will attend the meeting, along with Treasury & Commerce Secretaries. Hopefully something can be worked out which is good (GREAT!) for Japan and the USA!” It comes a day after the Trump administration said it had been presented with offers from...

IRNA – Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has rejected the idea of holding direct negotiations with the United States as long as the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran is in place, saying Washington has agreed to hold indirect negotiations. Speaking at a meeting with Algerian elites and media figures in Algiers on Tuesday, Araqchi said bilateral talks should be conducted on equal footing, not under maximum pressure and military threats. “As long as maximum pressure and threats exist, there is no ground for fair negotiations, and we will not hold direct negotiations,” he said. However, he hastened to add, the path...

Just hours after implementing tariffs of varying levels on trade partners worldwide, President Donald Trump said he would pause the 'reciprocal' import taxes for 90 days. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the pause would be effective immediately and the base tariff of 10% will still be enforced. He said he felt the pause was needed because more than 75 countries had contacted his administration to make trade deals.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett appeared on Fox News to discuss the first week impact from President Trump’s global trade reset and implementation of reciprocal tariffs. Director Kevin Hassett notes that so many countries are calling and requesting to renegotiate their trade agreements, the National Economic Council is having difficulty keeping up with appointment scheduling and establishing a prioritization list for President Trump to review. That said, Hassett notes that Japan and South Korea will likely be the first two nations for U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and President Trump to engage with. Apparently, Xi Jinping (China) and Ursula...

Mere days after “Liberation Day,” when President Trump imposed reciprocal tariffs on dozens of nations that have been exploiting the United States on trade, the global response has been swift—and telling. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins revealed that more than 50 countries have already expressed an eagerness to negotiate and avoid being hit with stiff new trade penalties. “We already have 50—five-zero—countries that have come to the table over the last few days, over the last weeks, that are willing and desperate to talk to us,” Rollins told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday morning. “We are the economic engine...

Instead of screaming and yelling at President Trump's tariff schedule, as the European Union and China are doing, smart nations have taken the side door to cut deals with President Trump and get their nations off the tariffs list entirely.It's as if they are sorting themselves out, smart ones from dumb ones.Start with Argentina, which got the deal done immediately:🇺🇸🇦🇷 UNITED STATES AND ARGENTINA BECOME THE FIRST ZERO-TARIFF COUNTRIES Presidents Trump and Milei will sign the first international trade agreement free of tariffs for both American and Argentine products. This is how negotiations should be done pic.twitter.com/TTcVpOXQ8U — George Papadopoulos...

Thailand will negotiate with the United States on tariffs, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Thursday, hours after US President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imports from many countries to the US. 'We won't let it get to where GDP will miss the target,' Ms Paetongtarn told reporters. 'We have a strong plan.' 'We have prepared several steps, including sending our permanent secretary to talk with them. … I think we can still negotiate.' Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat said the government was not surprised to be hit with tariffs, though the 36% level was higher than anticipated. 'We...

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to President Donald Trump’s criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying on Monday that Russia is still “working on” a peace deal with Ukraine but added that it’s a “time-consuming process.” In remarks to NBC News on Sunday, Trump threatened to impose “secondary tariffs” on Russia if the country fails to come to an agreement to end the “bloodshed in Ukraine.” Trump also said he was “very angry, pissed off, when Putin started getting into [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky’s credibility and started talking about new leadership in Ukraine.” Asked about Trump’s comments, Peskov told Reuters,...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) signaled Wednesday evening that he supports President Trump’s decision to open direct communication with Hamas on the release of hostages amid the militant group’s fragile ceasefire with Israel. “It looks like the administration’s directly negotiating with Hamas. Do you like that, or you don’t like that? How do you feel?” Fox News’s Jesse Watters asked Graham. The Republican senator responded that he doesn’t mind what the president does, “because I trust Trump.” He pointed to Trump’s recent post on Truth Social that called for the remaining hostages in Gaza to be released “immediately.” “Trump sent out...

Donald Trump says he believes Russia "have the cards" in any peace talks to end the war in Ukraine because they have "taken a lot of territory". The US president told the BBC he trusted that Moscow wants to see an end to the war, which Russia started when it waged a full-scale invasion almost three years ago. Trump was flying back to Washington DC after speaking at a Saudi-backed investment meeting in Florida, where he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a "dictator" for the second time in a day. Trump has been angered after Zelensky, reacting to US-Russia talks...

US President Donald Trump has been invited to Moscow by Russian leader Vladimir Putin as they discussed ending the war in Ukraine during a phone call on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited United States President Donald Trump to Moscow in a major step forward in ending the war in Ukraine. On Wednesday, the US and Russian leaders held a phone call in which they discussed a variety of topics including the conflict, and the potential of future cooperation between the US and Russia. During the phone call, the pair agreed to meet in the future, with Putin inviting...

President Donald Trump said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday about starting negotiations "immediately" to end the war in Ukraine. Trump said in a social media post that he and Putin held a lengthy phone call during which they committed to “work together, very closely” to bring the conflict to an end and would meet in person, including perhaps in each other's countries. It was unclear how closely Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be involved. Although Trump held a phone call with him Wednesday, Ukrainian presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said, characterizing it as a "good conversation." Trump's prioritization...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about negotiations on a deal for the release of the hostages, at a press conference he held during his visit to South Korea, He said, "We want to reach the finish line in the talks for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip within two weeks, and get the hostages out of there." An Israeli source told Kan News on Monday morning that, “contrary to denials by the Prime Minister's Office, Hamas has submitted a list of hostages to be released, but has not disclosed if any of them are alive. Netanyahu held a...

President Joe Biden and his White House were “largely absent” from the government funding negotiations in Congress this week, according to the Hill, which cited statements from political strategists and lawmakers. As President-elect Donald Trump and his camp grappled with congressional Republicans over a resolution while the threat of a government shutdown increased as the year comes to a close, Biden and his administration officials have mostly been silent.

Hamas has posted another video aiming to pressure Israel into softening its positions during negotiations for a ceasefire and a potential prisoner exchange that would return hostages in exchange for the release of prisoners. In the video, Hamas alleges that since October 7, 2023, 33 Israeli hostages have been killed in the Gaza Strip, with others injured. Hamas attributes full responsibility for these deaths to the Israeli government, including in the cases where Israel alleges that the hostages were killed in cold blood by Hamas. "Occupation prisoners were killed in Gaza due to the war criminal Netanyahu's lack of compromise...

Hamas did change some of the terms of the ceasefire negotiations, making reaching a deal more difficult, National Security Communications adviser John Kirby told reporters on Monday, though he said "it's still worth an effort to get back into it." Kirby described Hamas as the main obstacle to reaching the deal. Hamas's new demands call into question their readiness to do a deal at all, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added. "Even though we're hearing that, we want to talk about the next steps," she said. The murder of the six hostages last weekend made the urgency for a deal even...

Disagreement between Israel and Gaza focuses on 'densely populated' areas, Hamas threatening to execute additional hostages, report says. ......