Free Republic

A federal judge ​on Tuesday blocked U.S. President Donald Trump's administration from enforcing a policy that targets foreign nationals who ‌study disinformation and hate speech on social media for visa denials and deportation. Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington sided with, opens new tab the Coalition for Independent Technology Research in finding that the administration's policy likely unlawfully burdens the speech of non-citizen researchers in the United States in ​violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. The group's lawsuit alleged that the U.S. State Department, while claiming it is ​fighting online censorship that Trump's allies have argued has...

Vice President JD Vance asserted in a bombshell interview with Joe Rogan that some in the Israeli government want to derail US negotiations with Iran to keep the war going “indefinitely” — and he acknowledged the Trump administration “screwed up” the release of the Epstein files. “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt there have been people within the Israeli government who are trying to shift us away from [negotiations] because they want to continue the military campaign,” Vance told the popular podcaster during an episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” released Wednesday. “There are some people within their...

A poll of 1022 American Jews conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is viewed more favorably than either Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or US President Donald Trump. The percentages of favorable to unfavorable were Mamdani 44% to 39%, Netanyahu 32% to 59%, and Trump 29% to 70%. A Brooklyn poll respondent explained "I voted for Mamdani because he is a socialist. This means he will be giving the people many free goods and services that the other two guys would never do. So, he is a better...

President Trump declared Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz is open after the US hit 140 targets in Iran over the latest attack on cargo ships in the critical passage. Trump doubled down on US Central Command’s insistence that the key oil choke point was now open following an intense bombing campaign against Iran overnight, which targeted missile and drone sites, naval assets, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks, and surveillance locations. “Yeah, it’s open. We bombed the hell out of them last night,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” contradicting Tehran’s warnings that the strait remains closed.The president went on...

The US congressman Ro Khanna says armed Israeli settlers detained him during a visit to the Israel-occupied West Bank recently, describing the experience as a first-hand view of the realities faced by Palestinians living under occupation. In an interview with Reuters on Thursday from a Palestinian village, the progressive US House Democrat from California said his detention happened the previous day while his delegation visited an area of the southern West Bank that has experienced repeated attacks by Israeli settlers. Khanna recounted how settlers carrying US-made M4 rifles surrounded the group’s van. “We were at a village that Israeli settlers...

U.S. officials believed that Israel might have been plotting to kill Iran’s top negotiators while Washington was engaged with Tehran in delicate talks this spring to reach an interim peace deal, according to current and former American officials. Killing senior Iranian leaders had been part of Israel’s strategy from the start of the war. But American concerns about the targeting of two particular Iranian officials — Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Parliament — spiked during delicate cease-fire negotiations that began in April. Fearful that an Israeli assassination effort would doom the negotiations,...

Former US Senator Norm Coleman, who was appointed Monday by Pete Hegseth to a position on the US Defense Policy Board, said a year ago that ‘the masters of the universe are Jews.’ (LifeSiteNews) — After the Monday appointment of former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota to vice chair of the U.S. Defense Policy Board by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a year-old clip has resurfaced of his exclaiming “the masters of the universe are Jews.”Coleman, who also serves as national chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition, drew attention for remarks made in April 2025 at the Jewish News...

The neoconservative pundit Mark Levin posted on X on Thursday, “Here’s a novel idea: stop bullying our ally and cozying up to our enemy.” Megyn Kelly, the influential conservative podcaster, replied, “To which politician could he be talking? I guess we’ll just have to wonder.” Kelly was being tongue-in-cheek. There was no wondering. Levin was talking about J.D. Vance. He just didn’t want to name names. The vice president rocked Washington last Thursday—and infuriated neoconservatives—when he defended the Trump administration’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) deal with Iran at a press briefing. “This does bother me,” Vance said. “You've seen people...

I believe in the scriptural land rights given to Israel, I believe in fulfilment of prophecy, and, again, I'm not a theologian but I'm a Christian, my life was changed in Israel, the spiritual energy is so amazing there. I want them to win, I've said that repeatedly. However, you're hitting on something very potent and important. Now let me first say – I don't want to judge an entire group, because there's been many people in the pro-Israel group that have been very sweet, very kind, very nuanced...however, and I will say this, the behavior by a lot –...

US Senator Lindsey Graham: “I’m not with you, I’m with Israel, until my dying day.”

President Trump revealed Monday that he will confer with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about when to end the military campaign against Iran, suggesting the decision would be “mutual” between the US and its Middle Eastern ally. “I think it’s mutual… a little bit,” Trump told The Times of Israel in a phone interview, adding that he and Netanyahu have “been talking.” “I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account,” the president added. Trump previously suggested that the war against Iran could last approximately four weeks, but other members of his administration...