Free Republic

President Donald Trump’s approval rating with Republicans has taken an eight-point hit since the fall, according to data from a national polling series. Newsweek contacted the White House via email for comment outside regular working hours. Republican National Committee (RNC) national press secretary Kiersten Pels told Newsweek that Trump has "lowered prices, secured the border, and ensured workers keep more of their hard-earned pay," adding: "With strong momentum, Republicans are united, energized, and ready to win in the midterms." Why It Matters It signals a measurable softening in GOP support over just more than three months, as overall approval numbers...

This piece is premised on the book American Stasi, available free at AmericanStasi.com, and at all major booksellers. The book attempts to show that the nations of the West have all deployed East German Stasi-like ground surveillance in their communities, to monitor all the citizens, and make sure none can ever rise high enough in government to see the rampant fraud and abuse. The surveillance is most notable through its vehicular units, which follow established procedures, and which you can even see on Google Streetview, as they perform surveillance on the Google car as it moves through communities. Here we...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., leads a committee on Capitol Hill that has jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security. That agency has been under heightened scrutiny after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens who were protesting immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis last month. In letters to the heads of three federal immigration agencies, Paul wrote, “The Department of Homeland Security has been provided an exceptional amount of funding to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws. Congress has an obligation to conduct oversight of those tax dollars and ensure the funding is used to accomplish...

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he “saw no evidence” to back the claims of senior Trump administration officials that Alex Pretti was attempting to assault law enforcement officers and instead “saw a man that was retreating” when he was shot and killed by federal officers in Minneapolis. “I saw no evidence — I saw a man that was retreating. He went to the middle of the street, he didn’t even obstruct traffic, he let a car go through. As the agents advanced on him, he retreated to the side of the street. A woman is violently...

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) compared Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to fictional villains on Friday, calling them both a “sycophant” as tensions rise over the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. “A sycophant is more than just a ‘yes-man,’” Tillis wrote in a lengthy post on social platform X. “It refers to someone who acts excessively servile toward someone important in order to gain an advantage.” He added, “They aren’t just being nice, they are using excessive flattery, often insincerely, to get what they want, whether that’s a promotion, social status or favor.”...

As recent American military deployments to the Middle East and President Donald Trump’s escalatory rhetoric have heightened speculation of an imminent attack on Iran, there are increasing signs that such action would trigger a regional and even global “Shiite jihad,” particularly should the U.S. take out Iran’s clerical leadership. This would present a new phenomenon which is likely to pose daunting security challenges, not least for the United States itself. In a recent speech, the secretary-general of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Sheikh Naim Qassem, warned that a new war on the Islamic Republic would engulf the entire region. The assassination...

Thom Tillis has always said that he hates the camera. Then he announced his retirement last year. Now, the moderate Republican from North Carolina cannot stop making headlines. In a fiery floor speech earlier this year, Tillis said he was leaving the Senate to remove himself from any “boundaries I should have in expressing my concern and creating complications for my campaign” and Senate Republicans maintaining the majority. His retirement, which he announced last June, allows him to “speak truth” to President Donald Trump about White House policies and advice from Trump’s staff, he said earlier this month. But, the...

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said early Thursday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has ended its enhanced immigration operation in the state of Maine. The Republican senator said she had several “direct conversations” with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem since the agency launched its operation over a week ago, which comes after she’d received no information from the agency at the start of its heightened presence. While not saying when the operation ended, Collins said in a statement, “There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here.” It is unclear how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity...

New York Congressman Mike Lawler has said that President Trump’s deportation policy is “not working” and urged him to embrace a mass amnesty for illegal aliens.After the killing of another far-left protester who was trying to interfere with the work of federal immigration officers, Lawler has penned an op-ed in The New York Times urging Americans to “wake up after Minneapolis” and take a new approach to immigration.He wrote in his piece:The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this month were tragic and preventable. No matter where you stand on immigration enforcement, the shootings show that what...

As President Trump’s promised mass deportations gain steam, radicals are spiraling into outright calls for violence against those enforcing America’s borders. In a shocking video clip, anti-Trump operative Rick Wilson demanded the execution of Stephen Miller, the architect behind the administration’s tough immigration policies. Wilson’s meltdown comes amid backlash over recent ICE actions, including two fatal encounters that have fueled leftist outrage. But while open-borders advocates cry foul, the reality exposes their organized efforts to sabotage law enforcement and shield illegal aliens from accountability. In a recent video, Wilson rails against Miller for labeling the agitator who was killed in...

President Donald Trump should “calm” the escalating Minneapolis battle over migration by allowing states to import a new sub-citizen category of cheap foreign workers for U.S. jobs, says Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt. “We have to stop politicizing this [fight over immigration], we need real solutions on immigration reform,” Stitt told CNN on Sunday, adding: “And I believe that I’ve got a great solution that we should give the states the authority to do workforce permits.” He seemed to argue state-run immigration would end partisan fights over illegal migration: We have to enforce federal laws, but we need to know...

Most in the GOP are silent or backing the Trump administration, but a conspicuous few are speaking out. A small but growing number of Republicans are raising public concerns about the killing Saturday of a 37-year-old Minnesota man by federal agents.Hours after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street, one House GOP chair called for the top ICE leader and other Trump administration officials to publicly answer lawmakers’ questions. GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina called for independent probes into the shooting, with Cassidy arguing the integrity...

RINO Senator Bill Cassidy is demanding an investigation into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. In a statement posted on the X platform on Saturday, Cassidy described the ongoing immigration crackdown in Minnesota as “incredibly disturbing.”“The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing,” he wrote. “The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake.”Cassidy added, “There must be a full joint federal and state investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth.”Cassidy’s comments came after the death of 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, who was killed after trying to wrestle ICE agents while armed with a loaded firearm.As RINO...

WASHINGTON — The House Thursday passed four appropriations bills to fund the government and avert a partial shutdown, but Democrats largely objected to spending on the Department of Homeland Security amid aggressive immigration enforcement in communities across the country. ... Democrats who joined Republicans in voting for the Homeland Security bill included Reps. Jared Gold of Maine, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state, Tom Suozzi of New York, Don Davis of North Carolina, Laura Gillen of New York and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas. Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky voted against the DHS funding bill.

A House Republican is warning that if President Donald Trump were to order a military invasion of Greenland, it “would be the end of his presidency.” In an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said he personally would “lean toward” voting to impeach the president if he were to follow through on threats to take over Greenland. “I’ll be candid with you. There’s so many Republicans mad about this,” Bacon told the paper. “If he went through with the threats, I think it would be the end of his presidency.” Bacon — who often breaks from MAGA...

President Donald Trump will face an important obstacle — from within his own party — as he seeks to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Sunday he will block any Trump appointees to the central bank, including for the new chair, in light of revelations over the weekend that the Justice Department is investigating Powell for potential perjury charges. “If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none. It is now the independence and credibility of...

Five Senate Republicans joined with Democratic lawmakers in a surprise rebuke of President Donald Trump Thursday, voting to advance legislation that would force the commander in chief to seek Congress’ OK before taking any additional military action in Venezuela. Trump attacked the lawmakers in a Truth Social post after the procedural vote, saying they “should never be elected to office again” and that the measure they supported “greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security.” Here’s a closer look at each of the GOP lawmakers and how they explained their votes: Rand Paul of Kentucky: Paul was a co-sponsor of...

In what could prove to be a pivotal election year for the Republicans, with the midterms holding much influence, President Donald Trump arguably needs the support of his own party now more than ever. Especially as he is facing loud calls for impeachment from the Democratic Party on account of his Venezuela operation... Yet there is currently a split forming, as some prominent Republican lawmakers are publicly disagreeing with Trump regarding his renewed annexation threats against Greenland in the wake of the Venezuela intervention. In a series of inflammatory remarks labeled as “utterly unacceptable” by Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen,...

Wednesday on CNN’s “The Lead,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s comments that Greenland should be a U.S. territory were “unacceptable.” Host Jake Tapper said, “So do you want Stephen Miller to lose his job?’ Tillis said, “Either Stephen Miller needs to get into a lane where he knows what he’s talking about or get out of his job. The reason why I thought it was important for me to make a comment on the floor is I’ve been the Republican leader of the Senate NATO observer Group since 2018. There is no...

Lindsey Graham: “Who is in charge of Venezuela? Donald J. Trump. If you defy him, what happened to Maduro is going to happen to you”