Free Republic

The Washington establishment is once again working overtime to undermine the best of President Trump’s restraint-oriented foreign policy instincts. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which Congress is currently debating, includes three separate provisions that reduce the president’s ability to reposition or withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, Europe, and South Korea. The hypocrisy is blatant. Congress is content to avoid tough votes by abdicating its warmaking powers to the executive branch. It has not formally declared war since the Second World War. Yet when the President displays a willingness to end wars and consolidate America’s overstretched military, Congress seeks to...

Rahm Emanuel gave the world a simple truth about politics when he wrote, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Obama the Goof was pretty good at it. In Trump’s second presidency, has mastered this. He used emergencies to shut down the border, lay heavy tariffs on trade cheats and to turn DC into a clean capital worthy of hosting world leaders at the White House. Trump now is using the government shutdown to do what people...

CNN host John Berman confronted Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday for previously opposing government shutdowns. Along with most Democrats, Schumer voted to shut the government down since the Republican-led stopgap bill did not include an extension of enhanced tax credits in the Affordable Care Act. While he defended his party for voting in favor of the shutdown on “CNN News Central,” Berman played previous clips of the New York Democrat previously calling government shutdowns “self-defeating” and “a politics of idiocy.” “That was you three times in the past,” Berman said. “That was in March, John, before they had...

@SenRandPaul We were told to mask up between peanuts or be treated like we were taking down the plane. That kind of absurdity fed secret watchlists where spite or bias could brand us threats. We ended Quiet Skies, but we must stop government secrecy, over-classification, and surveillance of Americans.

MOUNT OLIVET, Ky. — Rand Paul might run for president in 2028. It depends on whether the Republican Party still has space for his fellow Kentuckian who now shares the title of Donald Trump’s biggest conservative troublemaker. “First, we’ve got to see if Thomas Massie will keep his job and get reelected,” Paul said after offering a “maybe” to the 2028 question. For Paul, a libertarian-leaning senator willing to break with the president when most fellow Republicans fall in line, Massie’s ability to withstand a Trump-backed primary foe speaks to his own future. “We represent the same thing. If people...

..... The speakers were complimentary of both Paul and Massie, characterizing them as principled conservatives in the face of criticism. Maddox characterized both Paul and Massie as the “most conservative” legislators in the nation, a comment that elicited applause from the crowd. Paul for his own part called Northern Kentucky a “bastion of conservationism” against liberal interests in Lexington and Louisville. 54-year-old Massie has occupied the House’s 4th congressional district, which includes Northern Kentucky, since 2012. He’s proven to have staying power among the electorate, carrying wide margins to victory in every election since that year.

A Kentucky congressman and senator are touring northern Kentucky together as the election season begins. “Is it the Republicans fault or the Democrats fault? And I just say ‘yeah,’” Sen. Rand Paul said humorously as he began remarks to a packed room at the Robertson County Community Center. It was one of four community forums held on Wednesday, co-headlined by Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie. Later in the day, both appeared at a coffee meet & greet and a “Massie for Congress” rally that staff said were campaign events. Both Republicans have taken national heat for their own independence from...

@ChildrensHD 🔥 Senator Rand Paul REFUSES to back down on prosecuting Dr. Fauci. “I sent two official letters to the Department of Justice under Biden.” “I’ve re-sent those under President Trump.” “Whether or not he is judged by a criminal court, he will be judged by history.” “I say NEVER AGAIN.” “Never again do we let them invade our churches, our schools, our businesses.”

A ponytailed New Hampshire man has been arrested after allegedly plotting to assassinate the state's Republican governor with a 'weapon of mass destruction.' Tristan Anderson, 22, is accused of threatening to kill Governor Kelly Ayotte with homemade pipe bombs. According to investigators, Anderson made the chilling threats to his roommate on Snapchat, bragging about his plans and showing off the materials he intended to use. An arrest warrant shows Anderson also ranted about the 'Israel Deep State' in a string of anti-Semitic messages before turning his anger toward Ayotte, who is Catholic. Anderson's social media littered with disturbing posts including...

@HHSGov @SenRandPaul questions Susan Monarez on the efficacy of childhood COVID vaccines — and he brings the receipts:

On today's Morning Joe, MSNBC analyst and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius admitted that the people on the boat that the U.S. military fired on in the Caribbean "were associated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. I'm sure they're terrible people doing despicable crimes." And while he first said that they "appear to have been drug smugglers," he later flatly described them as "drug smugglers." Even so, Ignatius suggested that members of the military should consider disobeying the orders of President Trump, the Commander-in-Chief, to fire on such boats.Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky strongly objected after Vice President JD Vance asserted in a Saturday post on X that "Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military." "JD ‘I don’t give a s[---]’ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military.’ Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation??" Senator Paul wrote.

There’s a reason Libertarians fail to solve issues. They are the political equivalent of a debating society arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin at one time while sipping tea and congratulating themselves on how astute they are. I suppose it’s the inevitable result of pursuing an ideology that relies on people acting directly against their human nature to succeed. Lofty diatribes over how people ought to think and act are fine when trying to persuade people to think and act in a particular way, but they’re utterly worthless (and ultimately dangerous!) when relying...

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has once again raised eyebrows by publicly questioning President Trump’s latest show of military force, this time over a Venezuelan drug vessel blown to pieces in the Caribbean. The Gateway Pundit reported in August that Trump ‘secretly’ signed a directive ordering the Pentagon to start using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels. The order provides an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels. This means that US troops could find themselves in countries like Mexico battling the Sinaloa Cartel, for example. As TGP readers...

Hamas employees of UNRWA punished Gazns who took free aid without paying fees for the terrorists to keep waging Jihad against Israel.pic.twitter.com/u4qsrsYj70— Liza Rosen (@LizaRosen0000) August 24, 2025 (See clip at link).

Hamas’s embrace of “death culture” is beyond comprehension for much of the world, Mosab Hassan Yousef, the eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, the founder of the terrorist group, told JNS on Tuesday. Yousef spoke at a closed-door briefing hosted in Tel Aviv by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA), titled “Exposing and Expelling Hamas – The Ideology Behind October 7 and Hostage Warfare.” The event featured Yousef alongside Luis Har, a former Hamas captive rescued in an Israel Defense Forces operation in February 2024, and JCFA President Dan Diker. The discussion was moderated by JCFA Director...

During a panel discussion Thursday at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual conference, CIA Director John Brennan was trying to make the point that just because an individual has an “activist” background, that wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, keep him from working for the federal government in sensitive positions. After all, he said, the CIA hired him even after he admitted voting for a communist in the 1976 presidential elections.In 1980, Brennan was trying to obtain a top security clearance for the Central Intelligence Agency, and part of the process involved taking a lie detector test. He was asked: “Have you ever...

Sen. Rand Paul is preparing to SUBPOENA Dr. Fauci to testify about his role in COVID-19... Since Fauci accepted a “pardon” from Biden, he is NOT allowed to plead the fifth in this instance. And if he lies under oath, he can be ARRESTED for perjury. Fauci is SWEATING tonight.

The Senate has advanced President Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill to a full debate despite two GOP defections after hours of drama. The final tally was 51-49. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina were the two Republican nays. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin initially voted no but switched to yes. Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Capitol earlier to potentially cast a tie-breaking vote. WATCH Vice President Vance enters the Capitol as he prepares to break a potential tie on the first procedural hurdle on the GOP reconciliation bill pic.twitter.com/d2ATm6dP6m — Max Cohen (@maxpcohen) June 29, 2025...

The Senate blocked an effort Friday to prevent President Trump from taking future military action against Iran without authorization from Congress, less than a week after he directed strikes aimed at the country’s nuclear capabilities. Senators voted 47-53 largely along party lines against the war powers resolution. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the lone GOP lawmaker to vote with Democrats. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), an ardent backer of Israel, voted with Republicans.