Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump lost three major legal challenges in the past week, including his efforts to dismiss a racketeering case on First Amendment grounds. Here is a look at the rulings in three separate cases this week in Georgia, Florida, and New York. New York judge denies Trump’s attempt to delay hush money trialNew York Judge Juan Merchan denied the former president’s attempt to delay his criminal hush money trial on Wednesday, after Trump claimed he was protected under presidential immunity. Merchan said that Trump had plenty of opportunity before March to claim presidential immunity in the case. Trump...

Former President Donald Trump‘s penchant for punishing GOP detractors is trickling down to Congress as some of his most ardent supporters are using loyalty to the former president as a litmus test for the Republican Party. Since launching his bid for the 2024 presidential election, Trump has kept a continuous calculation of those who have thrown their support behind him and, more importantly, those who have not. For those who have considered other candidates, the former president has been quick to decry their disloyalty and even vow to make them suffer politically. “Bob Good won’t be electable when we get...

Chief Washington Examiner political correspondent Byron York charted a hypothetical path to the Republican nomination for newly announced 2024 presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). "This is the kind of candidacy that's not just going to burst on the polls and all of a sudden he’ll be in second place next week," York said Monday on Fox News. "It’s the kind of candidacy that you visit Iowa a lot, and good news, good word starts spreading around you. "They say good things about you and, after a while, you just start rising in the most important first contest," he continued.

Former President Donald Trump is rejecting pleas from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to postpone a campaign-style rally this weekend some 200 miles from the Miami suburb where an international search-and-rescue mission is excavating bodies from the site of a collapsed seaside condominium. DeSantis’s office has "made a direct plea” to the former president’s team, calling on it to postpone the Saturday event in Sarasota. One Florida Republican bluntly said Trump and his team need to “read the room.” “The governor is getting tested here as to how far he's going to be pushed before he breaks ranks with President Trump....