Free Republic

President Donald Trump's approval rating has dropped to 40 percent, lower than all other presidents at this point in their terms, new polling released by Pew Research Center on Wednesday shows. Americans want Trump to govern less by executive order, listen to the courts, and don't like tariffs. Trump is losing ground with people on the fence. From February to April, his approval rating fell from 88 percent to 75 percent among people who supported him in the 2024 election but "not strongly," and from 44 percent to 31 percent among nonvoters. Of course, partisans will be partisans, and Trump...

So far, American consumers have been shielded from much of the impact. But as the world of international shipping adjusts to his policies, the president is facing a potential reckoning. With the US-China trade war starting to gum up container traffic between the world’s two biggest economies, freight companies are warning of plunging bookings and a surge in “blank sailings” – where ports are skipped or voyages are called off altogether. Earlier this week, America’s most powerful retail executives trooped into the White House to deliver a blunt prognosis: tariffs on Chinese goods risked causing “empty shelves” in two weeks...

China just raised the stakes in its standoff with Washington. Despite President Trump's recent attempts to dial down the rhetoric and hint at possible tariff relief, Beijing isn't budging. A spokesperson from China's Commerce Ministry flatly rejected any notion of progress, calling U.S. claims of renewed dialogue groundless. The message: if the U.S. wants to talk, it needs to first undo the damagestarting with a full rollback of unilateral tariffs, now as high as 145%. China also made it clear that future talks hinge on more than just kind words; Washington needs to get serious about core issues like sanctions...

-Uncertainty about U.S. policymaking has led to a flight out of the U.S. dollar and Treasurys, with the dollar index weakening more than 9% so far this year, and analysts see more declines. -The drop in the greenback has led other currencies to appreciate against it, especially safe havens such as the Japanese yen, the Swiss franc as well as the euro. -Currency devaluation is likely to be more of an active consideration across emerging markets, particularly in Asia, said Nick Rees, head of macro research at Monex Europe. -“Emerging markets face high inflation, debt, and capital flight risks, making...

Four men accused of murder were executed by gunfire last Friday in crowded sports stadiums across Afghanistan. The Taliban leader defended these public killings as necessary under sharia law. That night, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem announced that the Trump administration would revoke temporary protected status (TPS) for Afghans who evacuated to the United States after their country fell to the Taliban in 2021. This sets the stage for more than 9,000 people to be deported, beginning May 20. A DHS spokeswoman says Noem made this decision based on a “review of the conditions in Afghanistan.” To claim...

ETFs tracking the U.S. dollar are gaining investor attention as the greenback faces increased pressure amid increasing global trade tensions and indications of a weakening U.S. economy. As sentiment turns bearish at a record pace, ETFs such as Invesco DB U.S. Dollar Index Bullish Fund UUP -0.90% are becoming crucial tools for investors trying to deal with the volatility. The most popular dollar ETF is UUP, which provides exposure to the greenback versus a basket of currencies including the euro, yen, and pound. It’s constructed to profit when the dollar rises — but has underperformed in recent days as bearishness...

President Donald Trump knows his hike in tariffs for China's goods to 145 percent will up the ante in a trade war, but Beijing also holds a strong hand with its control of the materials critical for the United States defense industry. China first responded on April 3 to Trump's initial salvo of 54 percent levies on its exports by placing export restrictions on rare earth elements, which are key for the fighter aircraft that will form the backbone of the U.S. Air Force's next-generation fleet. Following a deal with Boeing, Trump has touted the F-47 as the successor to...

The BRICS group of nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—has long aimed to challenge Western-controlled financial systems and reduce the world’s reliance on the US dollar. Now, that mission is getting an unexpected push, thanks to new tariff policies introduced by US President Donald Trump. BRICS Bloc Gains Momentum Amid US Trade Setbacks Trump has declared what he calls “Liberation Day,” a move that marks one of the biggest protectionist trade shifts since the 1930s. These new tariffs target both enemies and allies, and are expected to slow trade, increase prices in the US, and put brakes on global...

After Donald Trump’s victory in last year’s presidential election, .several MAGA influencers cheered the prospect of him trampling on women’s rights. And Republican lahttps://www.yahoo.com/news/house-gop-tramples-women-rights-225055817.htmlwmakers have acted on that ethos with startling speed.Democratic women sounded the alarm Thursday following the House’s passage of the so-called SAVE Act, which would require all states to obtain proof of citizenship from people registering to vote, as well as mandate that states have a program to remove undocumented immigrants from existing voter rolls and allow Americans to sue officials who don’t follow the proof-of-citizenship requirements. Voting rights activists have condemned the measure as a voter...

In a rare announcement that has captured the attention of scientists and the public alike, NASA has issued a warning about an asteroid with a 4% chance of striking the Moon in 2032. The news, which has stirred both intrigue and concern, highlights the ongoing efforts to monitor near-Earth objects (NEOs) and assess potential threats to our planet and its natural satellite. Astronomers tentatively designated the asteroid 2025-XF47. NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations Program first detected it earlier this year. According to a statement from the agency, widely reported by outlets like CNN and BBC News, the object measures approximately 150...

Donald Trump has repeatedly said that his move to impose wide-ranging tariffs is based on the simple concept of reciprocity: The U.S. should put the same conditions on imports from other countries that they impose on our goods through tariffs and other trade barriers. But the tariff scheme he announced isn’t reciprocal and isn’t based on measuring foreign trade barriers. Instead, it simply measures bilateral trade deficits and comes up with tariff numbers from there. Those are two very different things, and could be one reason why global financial markets are reacting so badly. The upshot is that, in the...

America is at risk of losing a generation of scientists. Amid sweeping cuts to federal research funding by the Trump administration, job opportunities for young scientists are being rescinded, postdoctoral positions eliminated and fellowships folded as labs struggle to afford new researchers. As countless scientific projects come to a halt, the researchers who will suffer the most are those just beginning their careers. Times Opinion has heard from more than 100 readers who have shared stories of how they’ve been affected. Kristen Gram is a 22-year-old graduate student researching the type of materials and hardware that might one day help...

White nationalist pundit Stew Peters is no stranger to offensive commentary, but on a recent episode of his eponymous podcast, he openly called for the deportation of all Jews from the United States — even going so far as to echo Nazi rhetoric by calling it a “final solution.” Peters’ notable controversies in recent years include getting kicked off Spotify and Apple Podcasts after he peddled Covid-19 conspiracy theories and participated in a white nationalist conference held by Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. He’s embraced the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, claimed the Titan sub disaster was “actually a ploy” to hide...

– “The brave nations and the proud youth” of the region are labeled as “proxy” forces by western officials, “whereas the Israeli regime is the only proxy force in the region, which works on behalf of colonialist forces to violate the territories and sovereignties of countries.” – “The Zionist regime, as a proxy of the colonizers, incites fire, commits genocide, and perpetrates crimes, and if it gets the chance, it violates [the territories of] other countries, just as it is violating Syria’s today.” – “If others defend their rights or their land, they are labeled ‘terrorists;’ yet, [it is] the...

2025 03 28 Interview with Trevor Loudon by Mark Sutherland and John Haller I think this is an important interview that Mark Sutherland and I were able to have with Trevor Loudon on Friday, March 28, 2025. Trevor “brings the receipts”. runtime 1 h 37 m /// \/

What’s a good analogy for Signal, the commercial, publicly available encryption app?Have you ever watched a public hearing of the Senate or House Intelligence Committee? It happens almost every time: A witness from one of our intelligence agencies is asked a question that, whether the interrogating lawmaker realizes it or not, calls for an answer that includes national defense information — in the main, classified intelligence.... So what happens next is a commonplace: The agency official will tell the panel that he or she cannot answer the question in public, but may be willing to address the matter in the...

By gaining a deeper understanding of the philosophy behind Peter Thiel, we can learn where the second Trump administration is headed. Meet the Man Whose Philosophy Has Influenced Peter Thiel and the Technocrats By gaining a deeper understanding of the philosophy behind Peter Thiel, we can learn where the second Trump administration is headed. As it becomes clear the acolytes of Technocrat and faux-libertarian Peter Thiel will wield power in the second Trump administration, it is increasingly important to understand some of the influences behind Thiel and his fellow Technocrats. One of the largest influences on Thiel’s thinking is a...

American businesses are losing confidence in the US economy under Trump due to the tariff wars. CNBC’s CFO Council quarterly survey for Q1 2025 learned that America’s top CFOs are increasingly pessimistic about the economy due to these “disruptive” and “aggressive” tariff policies. Around 60% of respondents believe the US will fall into a recession by the second half of this year, with 15% believing the recession will come in 2026. When this survey was conducted last quarter, prior to the tariff wars and trade volatility, only 7% of CFOs believed the nation was heading into a recession. This figure...

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has delivered a pointed warning to judges nationwide as local courts have slowed the rollout of Donald Trump's political agenda. 'We do have authority over the federal courts,' Johnson shared at a press conference Tuesday. 'We can eliminate an entire district court,' he noted.

Nikki Glaser said that she is thinking twice about performing political jokes, including those about President Donald Trump, over fears of getting death threats or being detained.The comedian was at the gala for the 26th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Sunday to celebrate honoree Conan O’Brien.But the mood took a more serious turn when she opened up on the red carpet about her concerns with using political humor, according to Deadline. “Like, you just are scared that you’re gonna get doxxed and death threats or who knows where this leads, like,...