Free Republic

This morning, officials were out in force talking about the historic benefits of President Donald J. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which will deliver unprecedented tax relief, generational welfare reform, and historic spending cuts.Here’s what you missed:Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought: “It is $1.4 trillion in reduced deficits and debt. That’s why this is such a paramount, fiscally responsible bill.” (Watch)Director Vought: “The conservatives that have historically used the debt limit to sound the alarm have been pushing for the very reforms that are in this bill, so we believe that it’s important to do it with...

It's been a long and winding road, but Ann Coulter appears to be back on the Trump train. That's the word from a Tuesday tweet from the far-right conservative, weeks after she expressed unease over the Trump administration's plans to deport green card holders over pro-Palestine protests. The 63-year-old publicly pondered at the time whether such moves were unconstitutional, after sparring with Trump on-and-off for the past several years.

Nikki Haley, who served as United Nations ambassador in Trump’s first term and later challenged him for the 2024 GOP nomination, admonished Trump in a social media post: “These are classic Russian talking points. Exactly what Putin wants.” Another figure from Trump’s first term joined Haley in her condemnation. “Mr. President, Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war,” Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, wrote on X. “Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives.” Blowback also came from the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, normally a Trump-friendly outlet. The tabloid’s cover on Friday featured a...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's drive to shake up the U.S. government drove out a rising star in conservative legal circles: A career federal prosecutor who once clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Danielle Sassoon, tapped to lead the Manhattan federal prosecutor's office on Trump's second day in office, quit on Thursday rather than go along with a Justice Department order to drop a criminal corruption case against Democratic New York Mayor Eric Adams. The department ordered the case dropped, citing the city's approaching November mayoral election and saying that prosecuting Adams could interfere with...

In August, a day after Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president, a conservative-against-conservative argument erupted on social media. Steve Hayes, the editor and CEO of The Dispatch, called out his fellow conservatives for “fluffing” the progressive Harris and “embracing” the “nutty” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “What a mess the modern conservative movement is,” he sighed. The pile-on was swift. Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, was first. “Honestly, what are you talking about Steve?” she wrote. The problem with the conservative movement, she said, was the capitulation to Donald Trump, not the opposition against him. Hayes shot back:...

Conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg thinks Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s “increasingly repugnant rhetoric” as the 2024 election enters its home stretch may actually be a deliberate ploy. And Goldberg suggested how it could pay off for the former president in the race against Democratic rival Kamala Harris.

Some right-leaning voters who oppose Donald Trump are thinking of voting neither for him nor Kamala Harris. I understand how they feel. In 2016, I published an article urging Never Trump conservatives to consider casting their ballot for a third-party candidate. In the election that year, I did just that. regret writing that column. I regret casting that vote. To people like me, Trump represented a repudiation of everything that Ronald Reagan stood for. But as a conservative and former GOP staffer who had never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, I harbored reservations about Hillary Clinton. Voting for neither...

Nationally recognized conservative commentator Michael Medved says he will likely vote for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in November. Appearing KIRO Newsradio, Medved said, when asked if he would vote for Harris, “I’m sort of reluctant to say it, but it’s obvious that that unless something comes out in the campaign that is very different from what was presented last night, I think that’s the right decision.” Medved said that although the Democratic National Convention (DNC) wasn’t perfect, it was a home run. “I think this was an epically well-arranged, well-presented convention because part of what they’re doing is trying...

In the convoluted dumpster fire of contemporary politics, we find ourselves at a peculiar crossroads. Many self-proclaimed staunch conservatives are returning to vote for Trump, driven by a blend of party loyalty and apprehension about a Biden administration. Yet, some of these individuals are not content with their choice alone—they actively criticize and vilify those within their ranks who choose a different path. To understand this phenomenon, let’s draw upon the insights of Eric Hoffer and Gustave Le Bon, which offer a deeper lens into the dynamics at play.Today, like every other day over the last several weeks, I've awakened...

Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) will not vote for his own party’s nominee for president, he said Tuesday. The establishment politician’s statement that he will not vote for Donald Trump comes days after the former president locked up the party’s nomination. Young had indicated earlier he would not endorse Trump, but Tuesday is the first time he admitted publicly he will not even vote for his party’s standard bearer. “At some point, principled conservatives need to incentivize our party, the Republican Party, to nominate somebody that principled conservatives can actually believe in,” Young told a local Indiana outlet. “Stated differently, I’m...

Together with my good friend and occasional courtroom adversary David Boies, I am attempting to persuade a federal court to invalidate California's Proposition 8—the voter-approved measure that overturned California's constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex.... Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of our neighborhoods and our nation. At its best, it is a stable bond between two individuals who work to create a loving household and a social...

A famous neoconservative says Donald Trump will become a dictator like Julius Caesar if he wins the 2024 election. In the lengthy Washington Post piece, Robert Kagan lays out his argument that Trump is well on his way to becoming the GOP nominee for president and stands a good chance of defeating Joe Biden in November. He says Trump's second term would see him become the most powerful president in US history, after defeating two impeachments and coming through four indictments, which have only served to turbocharge GOP support.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson agreed wholeheartedly with the assertion that National Review founding editor William F. Buckley Jr. was “one of the great villains of the 20th century” during a Wednesday interview with Dave Smith, a comedian and libertarian YouTube host. Smith launched the initial attack on Buckley, declaring “I’ll tell you this: Whatever this atrophy in like the intelligence of the American people, it’s, I think it’s accelerating. I mean it’s-. Look, and again, just like you said I’ll disclaimer as well: I’m talking about people who I don’t necessarily like. Like I view Bill Buckley as...

The fourth Republican presidential primary debate of this cycle will be hosted by NewsNation, the “Megyn Kelly Show” on SiriusXM radio and the Washington Free Beacon newspaper, the Republican National Committee announced Thursday — representing a shift away from the establishment media outlets that hosted the first three debates. NewsNation anchor Elizabeth Vargas, talk show host Megyn Kelly and Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Eliana Johnson will moderate the Dec. 6 debate in Tuscaloosa, Ala., the RNC said. In a statement, Johnson touted the move to lesser-known outlets as a positive for Republicans, saying they were excited “to offer...

...A political magazine, The American Conservative will presumably comport itself with a bit more dignity than the average tabloid -- or maybe not, given the crew behind it. Executive editor Scott McConnell was formerly editorial page editor of the New York Post, and right-wing fulminator Pat Buchanan will serve as an advisor and contributor. Backed by millionaire New York Press columnist Taki Theodoracopulos, the new biweekly is expected to be more conservative than either The Weekly Standard or the National Review. It launches in September.... (snip)

Wishing away the ghost of a slain predecessor, our president is trying to bury a living law. ********************************************************* Hypocrisy is never a good look. On June 30, our secretary of Education declared that the Supreme Court, by striking down President Biden’s student-debt forgiveness program, had “substituted itself for Congress.” On the very same day, Biden issued his “Memorandum on Certifications Regarding Disclosure of Information in Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy,” decreeing that, from now on, executive-branch agencies would adopt the CIA’s “Transparency Plan” for releasing assassination related files they control. The problem: The federal...

Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and a likely 2024 candidate for president, delivered on an earlier promise Wednesday when he said new gas stoves — in fact, all gas appliances — should be exempt from his state’s sales tax. DeSantis rolled out the first budget of his second term, and among the proposed breaks for taxpayers is a $7 million permanent exemption on appliances fueled by combustible gas, such as natural gas propane, butane, liquefied petroleum gas and syngas. The move comes as the debate over gas stoves has heated up in recent weeks. In an interview with Bloomberg...

The conservative and influential Club for Growth announced it cut a deal with the super PAC affiliated with House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), signaling possible movement in the House speaker race after a stalemate had resulted in no speaker through six rounds of voting as of Wednesday afternoon. The deal with the McCarthy-affiliated super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), involves CLF agreeing to stay out of open-seat Republican primaries in safely red districts, as well as CLF vowing not to enable other super PACs to do the same.

Russian forces have been attempting to seize Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region for at least seven months. But in recent weeks, the battle in and around the city has become one of the fiercest of the nine-month war in Ukraine. Bakhmut, which sits above a vast salt mine and is famed for its Soviet-era winery, has been badly damaged — and in parts totally destroyed — by constant shelling. Russia’s determination to take Bakhmut has puzzled many observers, who question Moscow’s huge commitment of resources to the fight despite the city’s relative lack of strategic significance. The Moscow Times considers...

Former President Donald Trump’s social media outfit, Truth Social, is locked in a bitter battle with one of its vendors claiming that the platform is stiffing the company out of more than $1 million in contractually obligated payments, FOX Business has learned. If the allegations are true, they would suggest that Truth Social’s finances are in significant disarray, people with direct knowledge of the matter say. Internet infrastructure company RightForge is said to be among Truth Social’s largest vendors and creditors, these people say. In October, RightForge announced it entered into an agreement to host Truth Social, which Trump helped...