Free Republic

Greenland’s prime minister said a planned visit to the island by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance, is “highly aggressive,” plunging relations to a new low after President Donald Trump vowed to annex the autonomous Danish territory. Vance, the wife of US Vice President JD Vance, will travel to Greenland this week to watch the island’s national dogsled race and “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” according to a statement from the White House. National security adviser Mike Waltz is also expected to visit the territory this week, according to a source familiar with the trip. Greenland Prime Minister Mute...

BRUSSELS — As President Donald Trump upends U.S. foreign policy, negotiating closer relations with Russia, threatening NATO allies and pausing cooperation with Ukraine, Washington’s traditional partners — and best customers — are rethinking their dependence on American weapons systems. From Canada to Europe, calls are growing to steer future defense spending away from U.S. equipment and toward their own industries, even as many concede there is no quick fix after decades of dependence. The U.S. pause of intelligence-sharing with Ukraine this month, and Trump’s threats to annex Canada and Greenland, have laid bare the risks of counting on the United...

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who has been under the microscope this week for an anecdote about killing her dog, defended her actions Wednesday, saying she shot the “dangerous” pup in order to protect her children. “It was a dog that was extremely dangerous,” Noem said Wednesday on Fox News’s “Hannity.” “It had come to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive.” “We were her second chance. And she was — the day she was put down was a day that she massacred livestock that were part of our neighbors,” she continued. “She attacked me....

The Ukraine war is now essentially a stalemate. Yes, Ukrainian forces have had some recent success near Kharkiv, but at a high price. The brutal reality is that Russia has approximately 150M people, Ukraine has 40M. Ukraine is a border region of the Russian Federation, and very important to the Kremlin. Now that he has committed forces, Putin cannot let control of the Donbass region go, no matter the casualties. If he allowed that to happen, he would lose power. So, he will follow the old Russian tactic of throwing bodies at the conflict in a long war of attrition....

Vice President Kamala Harris would defeat Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a hypothetical 2024 presidential match-up, according to a new poll, but the race would be extremely close. A poll from the Harvard University Center for American Political Studies (CAPS) has found that Harris enjoys 39 support to the Republican governor's 37 percent in a theoretical contest. However, those numbers are very tight and the Harris poll found that a significant 23 percent of respondents were undecided between DeSantis and Harris. [cut] The poll showed Trump defeating both Biden and Harris in hypothetical 2024 contests. Trump had 43 percent support...

Donald Trump advanced his quest on Monday to purge elected Republicans who refused to go along with his attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election, announcing an endorsement in Georgia in an effort to unseat a key election official. The secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, infuriated Trump last year by refusing a point-blank request to fake the presidential election result in Georgia. Jody Hice, a Republican member of Congress who supported Trump’s effort to overturn Joe Biden’s win, announced on Monday he would challenge Raffensperger in a summer 2022 primary. Trump endorsed Hice immediately. “Unlike the current Georgia secretary of...

Donald Trump’s appeal is said to be his straight talk. But when it comes to international trade, he sounds like a hypocrite, the classic “Do what I say, not what I do” politician. While bashing companies for investing in foreign countries, Donald Trump’s own company has shown no inclination to invest and build only in America. In fact, a significant percentage of his company’s hotels and major real estate properties are located abroad. “Mr. Trump is either inexcusably hypocritical or inexcusably ignorant of economics,” according to Donald J. Boudreaux, a professor of economics at George Mason University. “There is zero...

Democrats will take the White House in November if Donald Trump is the GOP nominee, yet another poll has found. Regardless of whether Democrats put up Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders against Trump, the incumbent party comes out on top in NBC and the Wall Street Journal's latest survey. Clinton would beat him by 13 points, 51 to 38. Sanders would fare even better and win with 55 percent of the vote to the billionaire's 37 percent - a blistering defeat for Trump of 18 points......