Free Republic

The Trump Mobile T1 Phone appears to be available for outright purchase for the first time, after the pre-order notice was removed from the company’s website. The $499 handset is essentially a repainted HTC U24 Pro from 2024, and it follows a long stretch of delays, an FTC inquiry, and reports that the device is only assembled, not built, in the US. Ever since Trump Mobile announced the T1 phone last year, the handset has been on pre-order status. But if you were thinking about getting your hands on it, it looks like the Trump Mobile T1 Phone is now...

Men's Journal: Breaking News It seemed hard to believe at first. The National Weather Service was really issuing WINTER storm warnings for snow in late June? But it really happened. Three U.S. states were hit with the winter storm warnings, and Yellowstone National Park was seeing snow. That has a lot of people wondering why and what caused the unusual phenomenon. Even stranger, the summer snowfall alerts were coming as the eastern third of the U.S. faced what could be a record-breaking heat wave with the heat index even predicted to reach 115 degrees in some places. According to USA...

In a move likely to further raise tensions with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, Pope Leo XIV will gather the world’s cardinals behind closed doors on Friday to hash out new guidelines on when war is justified. It’s a topic that has already fired a spat between the White House and the Vatican within the context of the Iran conflict. When Leo said the disciples of Christ were never on the side of those who “once wielded the sword and today drop bombs,” Vice President JD Vance retorted that the pontiff needed to be “careful” about his theology,...

The Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren has warned that corporate mergers approved by the Trump administration – including a pending deal that would put two of America’s largest news outlets under the control of a family sympathetic to the president – could be undone by a future administration. “After 2028, we’ll have new players in Washington, and everyone who’s engaged in this merger frenzy right now is aware of that,” Warren said in an interview. “The deals that are being cut today are occurring in the shadow of a coming political tsunami of anger against these giant corporations that think they...

Donald Trump's Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin clashed so heatedly with a Democratic lawmaker at a committee hearing that even the Republican chairman lost patience with him. Mullin got into a finger-pointing argument with blue-haired Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro on Capitol Hill Thursday during a debate over the administration's child separation policy for undocumented migrants. Mullin accused DeLauro of being a 'hypocrite' for being outraged over children separated under Trump when she 'didn't say a word' about the minors who went missing during Joe Biden's tenure. 'Don't interrupt me!' DeLauro screamed at Mullin, pointing her finger at the DHS secretary....

Democratic strategist James Carville doubled down on his prediction that President Donald Trump will be leaving office by spring, insisting it’s not a “crazy a*s” idea. In a video for Politicon on Wednesday, Carville pushed back on critics who think he predicted Trump’s resignation simply for attention. “People said, oh, that’s very clever, you got a lot of pick up. You know, you like to say kinda crazy a*s things,” he said. “I want to very clear on something. I’m not doing this as a crazy a*s prediction, I’m going that because I genuinely think that he will resign next...

Rosie O'Donnell will join a roster of guest hosts set to replace Jimmy Kimmel for the summer, the late night host has revealed. Kimmel segued to the 'special treat for our commander in chief' with a nod to his September suspension during his Thursday monologue. 'I will be taking the next two months off, this time voluntarily,' Kimmel said, before showing off 'a potent group of' guests. 'Tiffany Haddish, Colman Domingo, Ike Barinholtz, Anthony Anderson, Jelly Roll,' he listed. 'And... I asked one of [Donald Trump's] all-time favorites - Rosie O’Donnell - to be here to keep the hits coming.'...

Even if you’re sick of hearing about Jeffrey Epstein — President Donald Trump and his team have been far more fixated on the relentless controversy than they have ever acknowledged. That (and plenty of other juicy revelations) is based on three years of reporting for a forthcoming book. "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump" is by New York Times correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan and slated to be published in two weeks. Whether you’re a Trump supporter or detractor, the book is packed with facts that make clear that most or all of the major participants...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has issued a pardon to Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who served nearly two years in prison for making illegal stock trades based on inside information after he left office. Buyer was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2023 for trades made while working as a consultant and lobbyist. He was ordered to forfeit more than $350,000, representing the amount of the illegal gains, and pay a $10,000 fine. He was released in 2025.

Fox News is taking heat after a new survey showed former Sen. Sherrod Brown holding a surprisingly large lead over Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio, a state President Donald Trump carried comfortably in each of his three White House runs. Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Ohio by more than eight points in 2016, defeated Joe Biden in the state by a similar margin in 2020 despite losing nationally, and expanded his advantage to more than 11 points over Kamala Harris in 2024. Husted, who was appointed to the Senate in 2025 after Vice President JD Vance vacated the seat, is...

Saturday's episode of The Weekend: Primetime on MS NOW pretended to present a balanced discussion between a Republican and a Democrat strategist in cowboy hats about the Texas Senate race between James Talarico and Ken Paxton. Co-host Elise Jordan introduced one of the guests this way: “Joining us now is Mark McKinnon, former advisor to George W. Bush and John McCain… Mark, you have a long career advising Republicans in Texas.” In reality, McKinnon’s Republican credentials are extremely thin and dated. His last significant Republican work was on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, which he quit because he wanted Barack...

The world is getting more uptight about lending money to President Donald Trump’s government — causing interest rates to climb in ways that are worsening affordability pressures, hampering economic growth and creating a new risk for Republicans in November’s midterm elections. The energy price spike triggered by the Iran war has seeped into the price of bonds that help fund the U.S. government. Interest rates on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note are topping 4.44%, up from 3.95% before the war started at the end of February. Average mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels in nine months, while auto...

President Trump likes his military and diplomatic victories quick, clean and decisive. (snip) But now, Mr. Trump has hit the stalemate phase of his presidency. The war with Iran is clearly at that stage. When he declared a cease-fire on April 7, Mr. Trump said on social media that the end of combat operations would be conditional on “the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.” It wasn’t. Even if commerce now resumes across the strait under a memorandum of understanding still under negotiation, it will still leave the future of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs exactly...

In what could be viewed as the most brazen conflict-of-interest issue in President Trump’s second term, the Pentagon just awarded Dell Technologies a $9.7 billion contract to manage Microsoft software across the entire U.S. military. Trump bought Dell stock just months earlier, publicly urged Americans to buy Dell computers weeks before the announcement, and received a $6.25 billion pledge from the Dell family. That’s the conflict part. WHAT HAPPENED The Department of War awarded Dell Federal Systems, the government-focused subsidiary of Dell Technologies, a five-year, $9.7 billion contract to supply and manage Microsoft software licenses and subscriptions, across the U.S....

The Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing criminal investigations into Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime target of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to current and former U.S. law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House and the oil-rich nation. It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated Rodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A Justice Department spokesperson said in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.” But DEA records obtained by The Associated Press earlier this...

The social media post by President Trump made it sound straightforward. The United States would orchestrate a deal to end the war with Iran and, in exchange, a slew of countries across the Middle East and South Asia would join an agreement, called the Abraham Accords, establishing relations with Israel. In fact, he said, that “should be mandatory.” But half of the countries he named — such as Egypt, Jordan and Turkey — already have relations with Israel. And the other half — including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan — have no interest in establishing them anytime soon. As a...

The negotiations between the United States and Iran to end their war are following President Trump’s familiar playbook for resolving a Middle East crisis: agree to a cease-fire and deal with the toughest problems later. Analysts say the approach has had mixed results in the Gaza Strip, where Mr. Trump brokered a truce last year between Israel and Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group. Plans for a so-called Phase 2 agreement — under which Hamas was to lay down its arms and Israel would allow Gaza to be rebuilt after a devastating war — have stalled. A similar approach in U.S....

WASHINGTON—President Trump and Democrats rarely find themselves in alignment. Yet both sides wanted the same outcome in Tuesday’s Texas Senate primary runoff election. Ken Paxton’s trouncing of incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican runoff represents Trump’s latest triumph in maintaining his grip on his MAGA base after he similarly ousted rivals in Indiana, Louisiana and Kentucky. But to the delight of Democrats, the president’s decision to make an 11th-hour endorsement of Paxton could put the Senate seat in play for James Talarico after decades of Democratic futility in the Lone Star State.

Donald Trump loves the words sleazebag and scumball, so much so that he’s surrounded himself with the very definition of those two offensive terms. And it’s hard to be more offensive than Texas GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton, unless you’re Donald Trump, of course. Last night, Paxton, impeached, indicted, accused of bribery, and credibly alleged to have used the Texas Attorney General’s office to benefit a donor who was simultaneously employing the woman he was having an affair with, won the Republican Senate primary in Texas by a landslide.

Consumer sentiment has tumbled to a fresh record low in May as fears of higher prices grow due to the U.S.-Iran war and elevated oil prices, the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers said Friday. The index of consumer sentiment fell to 44.8 from a preliminary reading of 48.2. It’s also well below the 49.8 level seen at the end of April. “Consumer sentiment fell for the third straight month as supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continue to boost gasoline prices. Sentiment is now just below the previous historical trough seen in June 2022,” Surveys of Consumers Director...