Free Republic

The Trump administration has put more than 100 officials at the National Security Council at the White House on administrative leave on Friday as part of a restructuring under interim national security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to two US officials and another source familiar with the matter. CNN previously reported that a significant overhaul of the body in charge of coordinating the president’s foreign policy agenda was expected in the coming days, including a staff reduction and a reinforced top-down approach with decision-making concentrated at the highest levels. An email from NSC chief of staff Brian...

South Africa's latest crime statistics debunk claims that a genocide is being committed against white people, the country's police minister has said.The widely discredited allegation was amplified by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, in an extraordinary meeting with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa.Trump told Ramaphosa that white farmers in South Africa were being killed and "persecuted".On Friday, South African Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said that between January and March, five out of the six people killed on farms were black and one was white.The white victim lived on a farm, while the black people who were killed comprised...

In their fiscal package, Republicans have slipped in a hodgepodge of tweaks that are, at times, only tangentially related to the rest of the bill.The domestic policy bill Republicans passed in the House this week is full of broad measures that would have visible consequences across the country. Many Americans would see lower taxes, while roughly 10 million could lose access to their health care.And then there are changes like repealing a pair of $200 taxes on gun silencers.As tends to happen when Congress takes up a major piece of legislation, Republicans have slipped in a hodgepodge of tweaks that...

The White House budget office on Friday rejected the conclusion of a nonpartisan congressional watchdog that said the Trump administration is breaking the law by not spending funds as directed by Congress. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on Thursday that said the Trump administration violated the Impoundment Control Act by blocking spending on electric vehicle charging stations. The $5 billion in funding was from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. Blocking the spending has put construction projects planned by states into limbo. The GAO said the Trump administration needed to go through a formal rescissions process — where...

For years, parents and medical professionals have sounded the alarm about the dangerous link between mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and heart inflammation in young males—only to be dismissed as “anti-vaxxers” or conspiracy theorists. Now, in a stunning reversal, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered Pfizer and Moderna to strengthen their warning labels, finally admitting that these shots can cause long-lasting heart damage, particularly in adolescent boys and young men. But this admission comes far too late—after millions of doses were administered under false pretenses, after countless young lives were altered by myocarditis, and after public health agencies actively...

In this VIDEO clip, DeKalb Board of Elections Attorney, Brent Herrin explains to the State Election Board that: “…TABULATING MACHINES WERE NOT ACCURATE. A decision by the board was made to do a HAND RECOUNT to ensure accurate results of the election,” Keisha Smith, DeKalb Elections Director, nods her head repeatedly in agreement. Duh! Isn’t that what we have been saying for 20+ years? Georgia’s Dominion voting system declared the wrong winners for the May 22, 2024 DeKalb Co. District 2 Commission primary. It only became known because a candidate received no votes in the precinct where she and her...

What are the origins of “Trump Derangement Syndrome”? House Republicans would like scientists to find out. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) introduced a bill directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct or support research to “advance the understanding” of the phenomenon characterized by “intense emotional or cognitive reactions” to President Donald Trump. The bill, titled the “Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) Research Act of 2025,” says “early documented references” emerged during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, including “certain media coverage amplifying polarized responses” to his rhetoric. However, the bill notes that its “precise origins remain understudied.” One of the research objectives...

Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily halted discovery Friday in a lawsuit seeking access to documents and information about the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) operations. In a brief order, Roberts granted the government’s request for an administrative stay, which temporarily lifts a judge’s order allowing limited discovery into whether DOGE is an “agency.” If it is found to be an agency, that would make DOGE subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The request went to Roberts by default; he handles emergency appeals arising from the nation’s capital. The pause will last until the court decides whether to wipe...

A Democrat representative reportedly invited the father of the anti-Israel suspect accused of murdering two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, DC, on Wednesday to President Donald Trump’s joint address in March.

While tariffs make wars more likely, embargoes make wars difficult to avoid. Senator Lindsey Graham’s Sanctioning Russia Act calls for 500% tariffs on dozens of countries and essentially amounts to an embargo.If this bill were to pass, it would cause an economic calamity on a scale never before seen in our country.In its insistence that Moscow be a permanent enemy of the United States, the foreign policy establishment is pushing to impose more punitive measures on Russia should they refuse to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine. The Sanctioning Russia Act seeks to inflict a series of additional sanctions and...

President Donald Trump said Friday that U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel will form a “partnership,” after the Japanese steelmaker’s bid to acquire its U.S. rival had been blocked on national security grounds. U.S. Steel shares jumped more than 24%.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was fuming Thursday as Congress passed a repeal of California’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate, which relied on a special waiver from the outgoing Biden administration in December. “Make America Smoggy Again,” he announced, sarcastically. The Senate voted 51-44 to repeal the waiver, after a bipartisan majority in the House had done the same, as Breitbart News reported earlier this month. The repeal relies on the Congressional Review Act, a Bill Clinton-era law that allows Congress to repeal regulations that are not presented to it for timely approval. Newsom says the waiver is exempt from review....

The U.S. Justice Department said Friday that it has reached a deal with Boeing to avoid prosecution over two crashes of the plane maker’s 737 Max that killed 346 people. The so-called non-prosecution agreement would allow Boeing, a major military contractor and top U.S. exporter, to avoid being labeled a felon. The decision means Boeing won’t face trial as scheduled next month, as crash victims’ family members have urged for years. The Department of Justice met with crash victims’ family members last week to discuss the potential deal. In a court filing on Friday the DOJ said it “is the...

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chair David Hogg said during a Friday interview that Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett is an ideal role model for their party. Crockett has rapidly surged to prominence with her racially-charged tirades and inflammatory anti-Republican attacks, such as calling wheelchair-bound Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “Governor Hot Wheels.” When radio host Charlamagne Tha God requested Hogg’s thoughts on Crockett, the DNC vice chair gushed about the congresswoman, saying she delivers the “authenticity” that Americans desire. “Jasmine Crockett — I love her. She is amazing. I think that people want to see somebody who fights and calls...

Nuclear power stocks surged Friday after President Donald Trump signed executive orders to overhaul the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and speed the deployment of new reactors in the U.S. Advanced reactor companies Oklo and NuScale jumped more than 27% and 18%, respectively. Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear operator in the U.S., was up more than 2%. Cameco Corp, one of the biggest uranium miners in the world, rose more than 10%. Trump said the orders focus on small advanced reactors that are viewed by many in the industry as the future. But the president also said his administration supports building large...

The House Republicans’ tax and spending package is set to infuse the Trump administration with a monumental funding hike for immigration enforcement, aiming to dramatically ramp up the scale and pace of the president’s mass deportation agenda. The bill, which the House approved on a party-line vote Thursday, would allocate more than $150 billion in additional funding over five years to Trump’s border and immigration agenda. That includes more than $51 billion to construct and upgrade border barriers and facilities and $59 billion for immigration detention and transportation. Most of the funding would be allocated to the Department of Homeland...

If the Trump administration succeeds in blocking Harvard from enrolling international students, the hardest-hit group would be students from China, who make up the school’s biggest share of current students from overseas.The consequences are likely to extend far beyond those select few who could gain entry to the prestigious university. The move could reshape the broader relationship between the two countries by cutting off one of the few remaining reasons that people in China still admire the United States.The flow of students from China to the United States has long been one of the most reliable ballasts in the two...

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration has continued releasing people charged with being in the country illegally to nongovernmental shelters along the U.S.-Mexico border after telling those organizations that providing migrants with temporary housing and other aid may violate a law used to prosecute smugglers. Border shelters, which have long provided lodging, meals and transportation to the nearest bus station or airport, were rattled by a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that raised “significant concerns” about potentially illegal activity and demanded detailed information in a wide-ranging investigation. FEMA suggested shelters may have committed felony offenses against bringing...

Summary Grok AI use raises privacy and conflict-of-interest concerns DOGE team allegedly pushes Grok at DHS without approval Experts warn of potential unfair advantage for Musk's xAI in federal contracts May 23 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE team is expanding use of his artificial intelligence chatbot Grok in the U.S. federal government to analyze data, said three people familiar with the matter, potentially violating conflict-of-interest laws and putting at risk sensitive information on millions of Americans. Such use of Grok could reinforce concerns among privacy advocates and others that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency team appears to be casting...

Anthropic said its latest artificial intelligence model resorted to blackmail when told it would be taken offline. In a safety test, the AI company asked Claude Opus 4 to act as an assistant to a fictional company, but then gave it access to (also fictional) emails saying that it would be replaced, and also that the engineer behind the decision was cheating on his wife. Anthropic said the model “[threatened] to reveal the affair” if the replacement went ahead. AI thinkers such as Geoff Hinton have long worried that advanced AI would manipulate humans in order to achieve its goals....