Free Republic

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wrote a letter to the editors of The Wall Street Journal that was published on Tuesday in which he vowed that the U.S. Senate was ready to “grind” Vladimir Putin’s “war machine to a halt” if President Donald Trump is unable to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine soon. Graham, one of the most hawkish GOP senators, wrote his letter in response to a scathing Journal editorial titled, “Time for a GOP Senate Revolt on Sanctions Against Putin.” In the editorial, the Journal’s board argues for the GOP to advance Graham’s bill that would “hit...

In what can be called a victory speech over failed neoconservative foreign policy, President Donald Trump proclaimed the end of 30-some years of existing foreign policy in the Mideast. The ideology dragged the U.S. through pointless wars from Libya to Yemen is now dead. At an investment conference in Riyadh, in a speech little-commented on by the mainstream media, Trump said, “In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built. And the interventionalists [sic] were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand.” For the first time since the First Gulf War in...

With four hats, including national security adviser, the former Trump rival is defying predictions he’d be a weak player. Marco Rubio is doing big things under President Donald Trump — way more than nearly anyone expected. The secretary of State was once thought of as one of the weakest players in the Trump orbit, a man who wouldn’t last long in the Cabinet because he faced many internal rivals and had major policy differences with Trump and the MAGA base. But Rubio has deftly earned the president’s trust, enough so that Trump this week gave him another powerful job as...

In a recent piece in The Atlantic, Reuel Marc Gerecht, a senior fellow with the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies, urged the United States to confront Turkey. According to Gerecht, Turkey has emerged, under the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “as perhaps the greatest danger to Israel in the Middle East, escalating the threat of a conflict he won’t be able to avoid.” Gerecht charges Erdogan with setting the stage for a clash with Israel as a key tactic in his power projection strategy abroad. To reduce the risk of “yet another regional war,” Gerecht urges President Donald Trump...

Neocon Bill Kristol is urging his Never Trump allies to “Stand with trans,” describing President Donald Trump’s criticism of transgender ideology as “unjust and dangerous.” In a post on X, Kristol — who left the Republican Party over the embrace of President Donald Trump — shared a link to an article written by Marc Solomon, a partner at Civitas Public Affairs Group. Solomon writes about supporting transgender Americans and calls for people to “stand with trans Americans.” “Stand with trans Americans,” Kristol wrote in his post on X. “You don’t have to understand everything about the transgender experience to know...

A band of moderate Republicans in Congress sharply criticized the Trump administration this week for siding with Russia at the United Nations on resolutions regarding the war in Ukraine, even as the majority of the G.O.P. turned a blind eye to the United States’ sudden embrace of a longtime adversary.“The Trump Administration royally screwed up today on Ukraine,” Representative Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, wrote on social media on Monday night. “The vast majority of Americans stand up for independence, freedom and free markets, and against the bully and invader.”The reproach from Mr. Bacon and others came after the United...

Let's send American troops to Ukraine! Bear with me.Let’s be honest: If Democrats and neoconservatives truly believe in “saving democracy” in Ukraine, they should either push for direct U.S. military involvement—meaning American soldiers fighting and dying alongside Ukrainians—or admit that this war is unwinnable. Right now, Ukraine is losing. The territory map tells the story, the desertion rates confirm it, and even mainstream media outlets can’t deny it anymore. Russia has already secured its key objectives—a land bridge to Crimea and control of the separatist regions. Short of a full-scale war with NATO, those gains aren’t going anywhere. Yet, instead...

Fox News host Mark Levin, a longtime supporter of President Trump, is breaking with the commander-in-chief over his recent attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, warning Trump that “MAGA doesn’t support Putin.” Speaking on the Mark Levin Show on Wednesday, Levin offered a rare criticism of the president as he backed Zelensky for maintaining order in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in 2022. Levin’s segment appeared to be a direct response to Trump’s claims that Zelensky is a dictator that the Ukrainian leader is stopping free elections and only has a very low approval rating. The Fox News host said both...

The biggest War Hawk in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, is now chair of the Budget committee. At the same time, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell are in control of key funding committees. The swamp RINOs control the Senate, wars, and borders. Expect billions and billions to go to the war unless the DOGEs can do something or the House starts using their powers over appropriations. Lindsey is mostly a Democrat when it comes to Liberty and voting. Global elites will run the Senate. There is not one actual conservative. Barrasso and Cotton are on some things. They are all warmonger...

President-elect Donald Trump is considering Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who has presented him with a plan to end the war in Ukraine, to serve as a special envoy for the conflict, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter. Kellogg, who was the chief of staff for the White House National Security Council during Trump's 2017-2021 term and national security adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence, would likely play a central role in attempting to resolve the conflict if he is selected. Kellogg's plan for ending the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukrainian sovereign territory, involves...

US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which is set to take effect at 4:00 a.m. (Israel time) Wednesday morning. “I am very pleased to hear that a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been reached regarding the conflict in Lebanon. Well done to all those involved in reaching this agreement,” said Graham. “I appreciate the hard work of the Biden Administration, supported by President Trump, to make this ceasefire a reality,” he added. “This ceasefire will protect Israel from another October 7th and will give the people of Lebanon a break from the fighting....

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) pushed back against the idea that the Russian war in Ukraine could end in peaceful negotiation, saying those who hold that view “may be deceiving” themselves. In a speech at the Halifax International Security Forum this weekend, Rounds called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “tyrant” and suggested he would be surprised if Putin were satisfied with any concession from the West. “It’s time to take a hard look at this thing and really ask ourselves, do you believe that this tyrant, if you offer him a part of a free country, do you think he’s going...

A resurfaced video shows President-elect Donald Trump warning that the world has never been closer to a third world war than it has been under President Joe Biden’s leadership. The video has resurfaced following Biden’s authorization allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles supplied by the United States to conduct strikes inside Russian territory. In the resurfaced video, Trump warned, “We have never been closer to World War III than we are today under Joe Biden. A global conflict between nuclear-armed powers would mean death and destruction on a scale unmatched in human history; it would be nuclear Armageddon.”Trump, who issued...

Former President Trump lashed out at prominent critic former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), calling her a “Muslim-hating warmonger” during a campaign event in Michigan on Saturday. “Kamala is campaigning with Muslim-hating warmonger, Liz Cheney, who wants to invade practically every Muslim country on the planet. And let me tell you the Muslims of our country, they see it, and they know it,” Trump said at a rally in Novi, Mich. “Her father was responsible for invading the Middle East, killing millions of Arabs – millions – and this is the one that Kamala is campaigning with,” he continued, referring to...

Former Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley on Tuesday urged former President Donald Trump to scale back his "bromance and "masculinity" rhetoric in the last week of the presidential election, because he risks alienating female voters. Haley, who challenged Trump for the Republican nomination earlier this year, previously urged the former president to keep his criticism about Vice President Kamala Harris on her policies instead of personal. Haley endorsed Trump this summer after she suspended her own presidential campaign.

The Washington Post has decided not to endorse a candidate for president this year. Ed has a post coming up discussing the matter, so I won't go into the reasoning or provide an analysis of what is behind that decision. Ed has been in this business longer than I have and is, frankly, better at that sort of thing. He is one of the best analysts I have ever met and a lot more dispassionate in his analyses. The Post, as far as I know, is the second major newspaper to bow out of the endorsement scramble this year after...

[snip] Frum sees Harris as the candidate now pulling away. Frum was, in essence, predicting a Kamala victory. And he wondered what lesson the Trump campaign, and by extension Republicans at large, would learn from the loss. Would they conclude that Trump lost because he was older and didn't work hard enough, and that the party simply needs to find a younger, harder-working version of Trump? Or will they realize that, according to Frum: "[Trump's] kind of authoritarian, racist, corrupt style of politics doesn't work. It doesn't work in North Carolina. It doesn't work for Donald Trump. And it doesn't...

even though even members of Ukrainian delegation stated in recent interviews that this was very good deal, best deal that Ukraine could get & “very real compromise” & that Ukrainian delegation celebrated it with champagne. She basically confirms statements by ex-Israeli PM, head of Ukrainian delegation, Ukrainian officials close to Zelensky, ex-German chancellor & Turkish FM that US & UK blocked this peace deal, which was close to being finalized.

Former President George W. Bush has finally released a statement about who he would be supporting in November following the bold declaration from his former Vice President Dick Cheney. After Cheney made headlines when his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), revealed that her father would be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming presidential election, a spokesperson for Bush said he will not be publicly endorsing any candidate.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the most influential and hawkish conservatives in the modern Republican Party and a figure reviled by the left, will be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris in November, his daughter Liz Cheney said on Friday. Former Representative Liz Cheney, the once high-ranking Republican from Wyoming who sacrificed her political career by breaking forcefully with former President Donald J. Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, this week said she would be voting for Ms. Harris. Speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Texas, on Friday, she revealed that her...