Free Republic

Former actress and filmmaker Justine Bateman, of Family Ties and Violet fame, said the election of President Trump may be the tipping point for the “woke mob mentality” that terrorize American culture. Speaking with The Irish Times about the state of Hollywood and the downfall of cinema, Bateman discussed a book she had written about beauty standards and how it struck a chord with people who had been chasing plastic surgery. “People are saying perhaps that book was a tipping point – just like this election was a tipping point for the woke mob mentality momentum. Perhaps my book changed...

The Salvadoran government on Wednesday rebuffed Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-Md.) request to meet or speak with a wrongfully deported Maryland man, the senator said, accusing the Trump administration and others of lying about Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s gang ties. Van Hollen said Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa told him the government had no information connecting Abrego Garcia to MS-13 but could not accommodate a visit to the notorious CECOT prison, known by its acronym in Spanish. “If the government of El Salvador has no evidence that he was part of MS-13, why is El Salvador continuing to hold him in...

The European Commission is issuing burner phones to officials traveling to the United States amid fears of espionage in Trump’s America. It’s the kind of security measure typically saved for trips to China or the Ukraine, where the fear of IT surveillance is high. But three European Commissioners will test out burner phones and basic laptops at International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington next week, sources told the Financial Times. The move from the European Commission, the primary executive arm of the European Union, marks a new era of American-European relations, which have all but dissipated since...

Donald Trump made a disturbing slip up during Monday's cabinet meeting, where he confessed he was "activated last week". Trump was humiliated by Putin after being kept waiting ahead of their phone call, but he has continued to attack Ukraine and firmly take Russia's side in the war. A former Soviet intelligence officer claimed Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 and given the codename 'Krasnov' - and his unusual choice of the word 'activation' has led to fears there may be some substance there. Trump, who has a unique bond with Vladimir Putin, was giving a sickly testimonial...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared South Africa's ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool, persona non grata and ordered him expelled from the United States. This immediately deprived him of diplomatic immunity and required him to leave the US in just a matter of days.Using X as his medium to announce the defenestration of Rasool, Rubio was blunt.South Africa's Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country. Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS. We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.The...

“Clear a path!” shouted the big shots of TV news as they tried to squeeze their way through reporters packed like sardines into the White House briefing room to get to their front-row seats. Tempers frayed, foreheads perspired and necks strained similar to those of passengers itching to get off a plane.The first press briefing of a new administration is always a standing-room-only event. This time, it was the second Donald Trump administration and the debut of Karoline Leavitt, who pointed out that she is the youngest person to serve as White House press secretary. The 27-year-old beats the record...

TRANSLATION OF STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT OF COLOMBIA. Trump, I don't really like travelling to the US, it's a bit boring, but I confess that there are some commendable things. I like going to the black neighborhoods of Washington, where I saw an entire fight in the US capital between blacks and Latinos with barricades, which seemed like nonsense to me, because they should join together. I confess that I like Walt Whitman and Paul Simon and Noam Chomsky and Miller. I confess that Sacco and Vanzetti, who have my blood, are memorable in the history of the USA and I...

Germany's ambassador to the United States has warned that the incoming Trump administration will rob U.S. law enforcement and the media of their independence and hand big tech companies "co-governing power", according to a confidential document seen by Reuters. The briefing document, dated Jan. 14 and signed by Ambassador Andreas Michaelis, describes Donald Trump's agenda for his second White House term as one of "maximum disruption" that will bring about "a redefinition of the constitutional order - maximum concentration of power with the president at the expense of Congress and the federal states." "Basic democratic principles and checks and balances...

Germany’s ambassador to the United States reportedly warned that Donald Trump’s incoming administration will undermine “basic democratic principles” and seek a “redefinition of the constitutional order.” While European leaders have been relatively muted in their response to the re-election of Donald Trump, particularly compared to the hysterical reaction to his victory in 2016, the panic has apparently merely been confined to backrooms rather than in public. According to Reuters, a confidential document briefing Berlin on the incoming administration signed by Ambassador to the U.S. Andreas Michaelis warned that the incoming administration would seek “maximum disruption” and usher in “a redefinition...

Those, he specified, are, "Equality, democracy, civility, compassion, tolerance, sustainability, open-mindedness, gratitude, freedom, integrity, and justice." "In short, in the public opinion of the CEO of SkiCo, the election represents a triumph of the opposite of all that. It represents a triumph of inequality, anti-democracy, incivility, unsustainability, close-mindedness, ingratitude, tyranny, and injustice," the report said. "He fails to explain how an open election, in which a candidate won a majority of both the people and the Electoral College, is anti-democratic. Perhaps he meant anti-Democrat." And, the report notes, there was the condemnation of "half the country with whose votes he...

AUnited Nations youth climate adviser has a history of social media posts that call for the destruction of capitalism, claim "terrorism" is used as a Western smear to justify its imperialism and attack White people for purportedly fueling humanity's extinction vis-à-vis the climate crisis. The United Nations' Secretary-General António Guterres personally selected Pakistani-American Ayisha Siddiqa as one of his advisers to help "accelerat[e] the implementation of his climate action agenda," a 2023 UN announcement stated. Siddiqa was a Time Woman of the Year in 2023 who has co-founded two youth climate activist organizations. "The Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate...

Prince Harry has waded into US politics again in his keynote speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, blasting the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan Markle arrived hand in hand ahead of his speech to delegates on climate change and poverty during the two hour meeting. The 37-year-old attacked American politics during his keynote speech at the United Nations event in New York City today. During his speech he said: 'The few weaponizing lies and disinformation at the expense of the many. 'And from the horrific war in Ukraine to...

Prince Harry has revealed he warned Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey that he was allowing a coup to be staged in the US just a day before the January 6 Capitol riots took place. The Duke of Sussex was speaking on Tuesday on an online panel discussing disinformation in which he aired his grievances at the media. Asked if he had spoken to Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey about his worries about social media, Harry said: 'Jack and I were emailing each other prior to January 6 where I warned him his platform was allowing a coup to be staged.

The move means 10 ambassadors — including those of Germany and the United States — are now just one step from expulsion after calling for the release of activist Osman Kavala. Ambassadors from 10 countries who appealed for the release of Turkish activist Osman Kavala are to be declared "persona non grata," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday. The designation is a diplomatic term that signifies the first step before expulsion. What does this move mean? Erdogan did not specifically clarify whether his order meant that the diplomats — who he accused of "indecency" — would be ordered to...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday declared ambassadors from 10 Western countries, including the United States, "persona non grata" in Turkey over a letter from the countries' embassies calling for the release from Turkish prison of Osman Kavala, a prominent philanthropist and civil society activist. ... It came five days after a public statement by the 10 embassies criticizing Turkey over Kavala’s years-long detention and delays in his trial, which had “cast a shadow over respect for democracy, the rule of law and transparency in the Turkish judiciary system,” the statement said. Along with the United States, France and...

Acting legend Joan Collins says she is sick and tired of cancel culture, saying the people promoting the destruction of lives are “sick “morons.” The glamorous Dynasty star told the Sunday Times that she eschews social media because she simply doesn’t want to deal with the trolls and “morons “who are always looking for some errant Tweet to attack.” “I don’t want to engage in any way, shape or form with these morons,” Collins said during an interview about her upcoming memoir, “My Unapologetic Diaries.” Collins, 88, noted that it disgusted her the way the cancel culture went after British...

Prince Harry today declared war on Silicon Valley by telling tech titans they should be motivated by 'well-being' and not just 'financial incentive' in a lengthy interview about social media where he blamed it for the US Capitol riot and the destruction of the rainforest - but says he and Meghan will rejoin it when it's 'right for us'. Harry was interviewed by Fast Company, a monthly business magazine, for an article published on Friday which is in Q&A format. It's unclear when or how it took place but he gives long, intense answers where he talks about the 'guiding...

Former Democratic strategist and White House adviser Dick Morris told Newsmax TV on Monday the Trump campaign's appeal to state legislatures is "truly where we'll get our remedy" on claims of voter fraud and election irregularities. Referring to efforts in Pennsylvania, where legislators have begun the process of revoking the authority of the executive branch officials to certify electors for the Electoral College, and Arizona, where Trump officials were to meet Monday with Republican lawmakers on a similar action, Morris hailed the move he championed two days after the Nov. 3 election. "What's important is not so much what's said,...

WASHINGTON (CNN) The official portraits of former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were removed from the Grand Foyer of the White House within the last week, aides told CNN, and replaced by those of two Republican presidents who served more than a century ago. White House tradition calls for portraits of the most recent American presidents to be given the most prominent placement, in the entrance of the executive mansion, visible to guests during official events. That was the case through at least July 8, when President Donald Trump welcomed Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The two...

Wolfgang Kubicki, the deputy chairman of the opposition Free Democrats (FDP), said Richard Grenell’s repeated interference in German sovereignty should prompt Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to immediately declare Grenell persona non grata.“Any US diplomat who acts like a high commissioner of an occupying power must learn that our tolerance also knows its limits,” said Kubicki, who is also one of five deputy speakers of Germany’s Bundestag parliament. Grenell had on Tuesday criticized Germany’s military spending plans within NATO as insufficient, prompting Kubicki to accuse the envoy of “interfering” repeatedly in political issues of a sovereign country. Grenell’s criticism of Germany’s...