Free Republic

"They say I have the most loyal people - did you ever see that? - where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters," Trump said, illustrating his point by pulling his fingers into a gun shape. "Okay? It's like incredible." The crowd laughed and clapped, and someone in the audience shouted out love for the candidate. "We love you, too, man," Trump said. Trump's comment came during a campaign rally Saturday at Dordt College in northwest Iowa. The 1,500-seat theater completely filled, hundreds more watched his speech from an...

In 2013, the tea party rallied to Matt Bevin against Donald Trump. RedState and tea party groups around the country swung into action in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to get Matt Bevin through the primary against Mitch McConnell. We were completely out-funded by establishment interests and Washington lobbyists. It turns out, one of those establishment interests was Donald J. Trump. In 2013, Donald Trump gave $220,000.00 to organizations, many of them dedicated to stamping out the Tea Party. From Karl Rove’s American Crossroads to Mitch McConnell’s Super PAC, Trump spread out money. Rove got $50,000.00 and McConnell got $60,000.00. Trump...

National Review's publication of the collective anti-Donald Trump missives from 22 self-appointed conservative potentates has caused quite a stir in Republican circles. The nationwide responses range from, "Wait, I thought National Review went out of business years ago," to "Ed Meese? Seriously?" The Gang of 22 have officially become parodies of themselves. One would have to reach back to the days of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew to lift an adequate quote to describe them. "Nattering nabobs of negativism," "vicars of vacillation," "pusillanimous pussyfooters," "the decadent few," "ideological eunuchs," "the effete corps of impudent snobs," or "the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs...

If you thought the Republican establishment was finally getting used to the idea that Donald Trump could become the party's nominee for president, the National Review would like to set the record straight. That's because the conservative magazine, according to CNN, will release on Friday an edition in which it declares that Trump is a threat to conservatism and that it officially opposes his candidacy. Included in the edition will be 22 conservative voices who have written essays to describe why Trump is a bad idea for the party.

That’s odd. What could Democrats possibly see in a lifelong true conservative like Donald Trump? There’s something for everyone in Nate Cohn’s new post. If you’re a Trump fan, here’s the smoking gun that he really is a new Reagan, the guy who’s going to broaden the tent and sweep to victory in November by bringing centrist Democrats into the GOP. If you’re a Trump critic, here’s further proof that he’s the RINO of RINOs, a man who’s blended nationalism, center-left economics, and Jacksonian foreign policy into something that tastes better to members of the other party than it does...