Free Republic

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported cars have yielded yet another win for the American auto industry as Volkswagen plans a “massive” investment in the United States to avoid such duty costs. In April, Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on auto imports to protect the nation’s auto workers and industry from unfair competition. Volkswagen, as a result, has entered negotiations with the Trump administration, reportedly resulting in plans for a large investment in the U.S. auto industry, according to The Guardian: Volkswagen, Europe’s largest industrial group, has said it will make a “massive” investment in the US. The group, which...

President Donald Trump is proposing staggering spending cuts. In his budget request for fiscal year 2026, the president demands that Congress slash an eye-popping 20% of spending which lawmakers allocate each year. "You're going to see $150 billion (in cuts) passed in the House and the Senate. That is real money," said Budget Director Russ Vought on Fox News. "I think for the first time, this budget is not dead on arrival." To be clear, the budget which Mr. Trump sent to Capitol Hill is aspirational. All presidential budgets are. It’s what a president proposes that lawmakers – and his...

In a wide-ranging and unapologetically pro-growth address Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out the Trump administration’s economic vision for the next four years, calling on global investors to align with what he described as a “new Golden Age” for American enterprise. Speaking before an audience of business leaders, financiers, and policymakers at the Milken Institute’s annual Global Conference, Bessent delivered what amounted to a comprehensive blueprint for the administration’s domestic agenda—one built around three interlocking pillars: strategic tariffs, aggressive tax incentives, and sweeping deregulation. “Our goal is not simply to grow the economy,” Bessent said. “It’s to re-anchor global...

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Breitbart News exclusively he is targeting a July 4 deadline to get the big budget reconciliation plan that would extend President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts– adding no tax on tips, Social Security income, or overtime wages–to the president’s desk for his signature. This is welcome news for the president and his team, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also has recently said he hopes for a July 4 date for the package to be wrapped up. The package is also expected to fund more of the president’s immigration priorities, as well as...

Joy Behar told her co-hosts Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that President Donald Trump’s plan to offer financial assistance to new mothers is to increase the number of “white children.” Partial transcript as follows: SUNNY HOSTIN: I want to reframe the issue a little bit because when I look at something like this, these proposals, I want to know why and I want to know who is making them. And so when I looked into that, they’re saying that the U.S. birth rate is declining, however, in 2024 there was a 1% increase in U.S. births, but that increase was...

Comedian and podcaster Theo Von made a now or never pitch in support of President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs, crediting Trump for attempting to steer America off of a path that has left whole swaths of American towns and cities “empty” and “boarded up.” “The goal of tariffs is, if it costs more for people to bring their products in then they will build them here,” Von said, adding “So it’s kind of a longterm play. It’s going to take a while.” “If we don’t try this, then I think it’s a wrap. On this comedy tour, we’ve been to...

During the opening monologue on Sunday’s broadcast of FNC’s “Life, Liberty & Levin,” host Mark Levin offered his view on President Donald Trump’s tariff plan and contrasted it with the Democratic Party’s approach to the economy. Levin called the Trump administration’s effort a “growth plan” while criticizing Democrats for their approach centered on the redistribution of wealth. Transcript as follows: LEVIN: Can somebody please tell me what exactly are the Democrats doing to help our economy, to improve our country? What are they doing to help working men and women across the country, manufacturing across the country? All they want...

During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted President Donald Trump’s economic plan would be a net benefit to the U.S. economy. Among the positive impacts he offered were reindustrialization, a revitalized private sector and higher wages. Transcript as follows: WELKER: It’s great to have you back after a very big week. Let’s start with the market reaction to President Trump’s announcement of his tariffs. As I just laid out at the top of the program, the markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan,...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday doubled down on his assertion that he did not share classified plans to strike Houthi targets in a Signal group chat of Trump administration officials that was inadvertently shared with a journalist, who he claimed “has never seen a war plan.” In a combative post to the social platform X, Hegseth lambasted The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, for publishing the Signal group chat messages, in which the Pentagon chief relayed details about airstrikes in Yemen earlier this month that an initial article on the matter did not contain, including the specific timeline...

Everyone is talking about Republicans’ proposed Medicaid cuts, but hardly anyone is calling this what it really is: the strategy by Elon Musk, President Trump, and the Republican Party to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, one piece at a time. The ACA, a historic piece of legislation that extended health coverage to millions of Americans, celebrated its 15th anniversary on March 23. Signed by President Barack Obama in 2010, the ACA expanded Medicaid and provided subsidies so that more working and middle-class Americans could have access to our expensive and complicated health care system. The law also made it illegal...

JUST IN: Elon Musk announces he is launching a lawsuit after former Rep. Jamaal Bowman called him a “thief” and a “Nazi” on live television. The comment from Bowman came last night on CNN. “I've had enough. Lawsuit inbound,” Musk said in response to the video clip below.

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) responded to plans to eliminate the federal Department of Education by claiming that “Ruby Bridges needed to be escorted into those schools and the folks who went into Little Rock because we didn’t have an Education Department that ensured her civil rights were respected. That’s gone now.” And stated that “when Trump says it’s a bunch of bureaucrats interfering with your local schools, give local control, we’ll give you the money, it sounds pretty good. And we have not provided what that alternative looks like.” Walz said, “What...

he Chinese Foreign Ministry declared its support on Wednesday for Egypt’s attempt to galvanize the Arab world into supporting a plan for the reconstruction of Gaza, intended to prevent President Donald Trump from taking the territory over. Much of Gaza is currently uninhabitable as a result of two decades of being under the control of the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas. Following Hamas’s brutal invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, the country declared war on the group and attacked Gaza, seeking to destroy its terrorist infrastructure in the strip. As a result, much of Gaza requires significant reconstruction, a task...

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is facing growing questions about his pledge to deploy boots on the ground and planes in the air over Ukraine when the UK Armed Forces has seen the number of soldiers dwindle to the lowest since the Napoleonic era and other services hollowed out. After months of declining support amid domestic failures, Prime Minister Starmer has recently attempted to recast himself as an international leader through the war in Ukraine. The leftist PM has joined with French President Emmanuel Macron — who has also suffered domestically over the past year — in offering up...

UK Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer said ahead of a Lancaster House summit on Sunday that Britain and France will work to craft a Ukraine ceasefire deal that would be presented to the United States. Echoing the language of former U.S. President George W. Bush, the Labour Party leader said that London and Paris will seek to build a “coalition of the willing” to enforce a peace in Ukraine. The UK and France have already committed to sending troops into the former Eastern bloc nation to act as peacekeepers, but other European nations, notably Italy, Germany, and Poland, have so...

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia aim to boost American automobile production to avoid President Donald Trump’s planned 25 percent auto tariff, according to a report. Trump on Tuesday said the tariff rates on auto imports will be “in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” with more details to come in early April. He noted that he will give auto manufacturers time to avoid the tariff. “If they have a plant and factory here, there will be no tariff,” the 47th president remarked.

Former national security adviser John Bolton called President Trump’s positioning on ending the war in Ukraine “pretty close to surrender” in an interview released Thursday. “I think Trump’s remarks and that of [Secretary of Defense] Pete Hegseth and others come pretty close to surrender,” he told Politico. “It’s a position that’s similar to what [Vice President] JD Vance announced during the campaign about Ukraine: There’d be a ceasefire in place, a militarized zone would be created, negotiations would begin, Ukraine would agree not to join NATO.” Trump and Hegseth made waves last week with comments that broke starkly with U.S....

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Friday unveiled a 61-page budget resolution that would lay the groundwork for the Senate to pass a special budget reconciliation bill that would provide $175 billion to secure the southern border and $150 billion to beef up national defense. “To those who voted for and support real border security and a stronger defense in a troubled world, help is on the way,” Graham said in a statement. “This budget resolution jumpstarts a process that will give President Trump’s team the money they need to secure the border and deport criminals, and make...

Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan said President Trump’s plan to eliminate the Department of Education is “not going to happen,” citing necessary congressional action. “First of all, (the Trump administration) cannot eliminate the Department of Education,” he told “NewsNation Now,” on Wednesday. “That takes an act of Congress. That’s not going to happen.” Duncan, however, stressed that the White House could still move to neuter the department. “Could they weaken the department? Could they move functions to other agencies — to Health and Human Services, to the Labor Department, to Treasury? That is possible,” he said. Trump is preparing to...

The US Department of Defense is developing plans to withdraw all US troops from Syria, NBC News reported on Wednesday, citing two US defense officials. President Donald Trump and officials close to him recently expressed interest in pulling US troops out of Syria, leading Pentagon officials to begin drawing up plans for a full withdrawal in 30, 60 or 90 days, the report added.