Free Republic

President Donald Trump announced this week that he would end the Digital Equity Act, which provided $2.5 billion in grants to ensure everyone had equal access to the digital economy. "I have spoken with my wonderful Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, and we agree that the Biden/Harris so-called 'Digital Equity Act' is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL," Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social. "No more woke handouts based on race!" "The Digital Equity Program is a RACIST and ILLEGAL $2.5 BILLION DOLLAR giveaway. I am ending this IMMEDIATELY, and saving Taxpayers BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!" he added. The act, signed into law by former...

Ussa Polania was booked at Seminole County Jail on May 2 for charges related to petty theft with an estimated value between $100 and $750, according to Frances Matos in the booking department at Seminole County Jail and an arrest report from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office "This is un-American to try to force or coerce someone to get tired and voluntarily sign the death penalty, technically … she faces a horrible, horrible fate if she goes back to wherever she came from." Filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus means Ussa Polania alleges her detention “goes against the...

The head of the FBI's New York field office resigned Monday afternoon, facing pressure from President Donald Trump's administration. James Dennehy announced his resignation in an email to staff, NBC News reported. His resignation comes after Kash Patel began his first week leading the bureau last week. Before that, Justice Department deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, began a search for all FBI staff who worked on cases around the Jan. 6 attackers. Dennehy clashed with Bove over that probe into the staff.

WASHINGTON — The Senate began its budgeting process after waiting several weeks for the House to move forward with its process. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is spearheading the effort, and he's promising others on the committee it isn't a waste of their time. "Are you guys just doing a fruitless exercise today?" Raw Story asked Graham at the Capitol on Wednesday. But Democrats didn't seem to be on the same page — nor was Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). “I’m concerned with the budget on our side that’s being proposed, and then I don’t think the numbers are real,” Paul told...

Newly-confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced Monday — his first day in the job — that President Trump will be issuing a spate of executive orders for the military, including one to create an "Iron Dome" defense system like the one used by Israel to deflect incoming missiles.

Some Republicans believe that they are better off with Trump winning the White House on the grounds that he will be theoretically term limited and thus can be shoved off the stage after 2028. Should he lose to Harris this fall, the thinking goes, "he would once again insist he was cheated and hold out the possibility of a fourth consecutive bid, prolonging the party’s capture." Other Republicans, however, want to have Trump gone as quickly as possible and they think that they could hold off major policy advances by a Harris presidency by retaking the Senate this fall and...

Donald Trump Saturday campaigned in New Jersey, but social media was focused on someone he pointed to in the crowd. Trump delivered remarks at a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey. The former president's introduction included a mention of his "golfing friends." "He's doing quite a great job. What do you think, Lawrence? Doing a great job!" the ex-president said at his weekend. "Look at those to guys, O.J., Lawrence, my golfing friends. We don't have to agree on everything!" Later in the speech, Trump again mentioned "O.J." and "Lawrence," calling them "great guys" and claiming that they once played football....

be taught to handle guns in school so they are not "picked on" by bullies. During a program at Turning Point USA's America Fest on Tuesday, Bannon lammented that gun classes were not taught to young students.

In retrospect, wrote former GOP strategist Tim Miller for The Bulwark, it was inevitable that Republicans would go down this path. "For about a decade and a half now the governing wing of the party has attempted every strategy imaginable to delay handing congressional leadership power to the group of lawmakers who better represent the desires of today’s GOP voters — the erstwhile renegades the late John McCain dubbed 'wacko birds,'" wrote Miller. "That group has grown from only a handful of troublemakers to a significant bloc of Congress that’s bolstered by an additional group of 'closet normals' who dress...

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows will reportedly plead guilty as part of a plan to indict former President Donald Trump. Sources told Andrew Feinberg of The Independent that Meadows' decision to plead guilty was connected to his testimony to a grand jury hearing evidence about Jan. 6 and the mishandling of classified documents. "It is understood that the former North Carolina congressman will plead guilty to several federal charges as part of a deal for which he has already received limited immunity in exchange for his testimony," Feinberg wrote.

Former GOP strategist turned Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt ripped into Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in a new episode of his political podcast, "The Warning." "There he is," said Schmidt, showing an image of DeSantis during his interview with Fox News in which he claimed he would "smash" leftism in the United States as president. "Governor Ron DeSantis. The Mussolini of Tallahassee, using a U.S. Navy war vessel as a visual prop just days after his disastrous launch, which spawned the fantastic hashtag, "#DeSaster." "Who is it that he wants to smash?" said Schmidt. "Is he going to arrest Bernie...

As Donald Trump continues to ramp up his inflammatory rhetoric against the FBI, some think it amounts to incitement. But according to former CIA intelligence officer David Preiss, Trump can only be held legally accountable if someone is directly influenced by his words. "The bigger threat, of course, is just the overall political environment at a time when the former president should be explaining how it's possible there was all this classified information documents inside his residence," Preiss said during a segment on CNN this Monday. "Instead of explaining that, he's going on the offensive and taking on people. Like,...

A data hack reveals the right-wing Liberty Counsel may have violated IRS rules against political activity. The hacktivist site Enlace Hacktivista released a 25-gigabyte Liberty Counsel database containing nearly seven years of donor records, which show that 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations controlled by the evangelical organization encouraged supporters to vote for Donald Trump -- an apparent violation of IRS rules prohibiting those entities from endorsing political candidates, reported The Intercept.“Noticing a worrying trend of far-right and anti-abortion activists aligning themselves with the evangelical Christian movement, hiding their funding sources behind laws that allow church ministries to keep their donations secret, we...

Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday suggested former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg wouldn't look masculine standing next to "Mr. Man" President Trump on a presidential debate stage because he is an openly gay married man. Democrats are “sitting there, and they’re looking at Mayor Pete, a 37-year-old gay guy ... loves to kiss his husband on the debate stage,” Limbaugh told his radio show listeners while discussing what he perceives as a weak Democratic field. “And they’re saying, 'OK, how’s this gonna look, a 37-year-old gay guy kissing his husband onstage next to Mr. Man Donald Trump? What’s gonna happen...

The cult of Pelosi isn't just a 'hot take' or a 'be smart,' it's a mindset through which Washington's media elites interpret the world. It's false, and the harsh light of reality easily shows as much. There are many cults in Washington, D.C. The Founding Church of Scientology sits between Dupont and Logan Circles. The earth-worshiping Defenders of Wildlife are just a few blocks south, their entrance guarded by imposing bronze grey wolves. One block north, the Human Rights Campaign dispatches starry-eyed adherents with clipboards to recruit followers, and to the east lie the child-harvesters. Two blocks away, the remnants...

ew York appeals court denied Fox News host Bill O’Reilly’s petition seeking custody of his two children, Gawker reported on Monday. The court’s Feb. 24 ruling upheld a Nassau County Supreme Court decision granting full custody of the 12-year-old boy and 17-year-old girl to Maureen McPhilmy, the Factor host’s ex-wife. “Viewing the totality of the circumstances, there is a sound and substantial basis for the Supreme Court’s determination that it is in the best interests of the children for the mother to be awarded primary residential custody,” the Appellate Division Second Judicial Department court stated. “Particularly relevant in this case...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has assured Senate candidates running for reelection that they can run ads against Donald Trump even if he wins the GOP nomination for president. According to the New York Times, senators attending private lunches with the Majority Leader have been advised to take the position that Donald Trump will lose badly in the general election and should prepare themselves for a Hillary Clinton presidency.

The “Smithsonian” magazine compiled a list of the “100 most significant Americans,” and to the dismay of his fan base President Obama failed to make the cut. Adding insult to injury, former President George W. Bush made the list. But it gets even better, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was also included. The liberal website Raw Story bemoaned the very idea that the Smithsonian Institution “decided that George W. Bush is a more ‘significant’ figure in U.S. history” than the exalted one. Curiously, the only redeeming qualification Raw Story named when mentioning Obama is that he was the country’s first...

Think Progress, a website operated by the liberal Center for American Progress, failed to vet a phony story which claimed that Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann proposed “Americanization” labor camps for Central American unaccompanied children. “I’m calling on all of us, Obama and Congress and everyone, to chip in and build special new facilities…‘Americanization facilities,’ if you will,” Bachmann said, according to Think Progress, which has since corrected its embarrassing flub. […] Think Progress published the erroneous story on Sunday but corrected it and issued an apology after another liberal website, the Raw Story, pointed out the massive hoax. […]...

Congressional support for controversial online piracy legislation eroded dramatically on Wednesday in the face of an unprecedented online protest supported by tech titans such as Google, Wikipedia and Facebook. Several key senators withdrew their support from the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA), including Tea Party favorite Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), an elected member of his party's leadership. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who leads the Senate GOP's campaign team, said the legislation should be put on hold, while Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a sponsor and the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, retreated from the...