Free Republic

The Democrat and RINO effort to blow up Trump’s global tariffs suffered an embarrassing failure in the Senate this evening after two senators failed to vote. As The Gateway Pundit reported, Senator Rand Paul (RINO-KY) had sponsored a resolution that would have terminated ALL of Trump’s tariffs, including those on America’s top adversary, China. The vote deadlocked 49-49, meaning it failed by one vote. But there were three Republicans who voted to stab Trump in the back and end the global tariffs: Rand Paul of Kentucky Susan Collins of Maine Lisa Murkowski of Alaska Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Senator...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is continuing his push against President Donald Trump's tariffs, with legislation he is co-sponsoring against them to come before the Senate next week. Paul says lawmakers should be in control of tariffs, rather than Trump, through the use of a national-emergency law. The discussion will come less than a month after Paul was one of the only two chamber Republicans to vote against his party's budget, which is seen as a key part of the president's tax cuts, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. "I don't have any bad feelings towards the president, but this is...

Sen. Ron Johnson is actively investigating 9/11. A day after the Wisconsin Republican went on a far-right podcast promoting conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, a spokesperson for Johnson said the lawmaker is currently seeking information and documentation in order to hold hearings on the event nearly 25 years later. He would do so in his capacity as chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, one of Congress’s most storied and powerful panels with far-reaching jurisdiction that gives its chair wide latitude to probe a diverse array of matters. It has...

Trump's tariff announcement introduced uncertainty to the markets. Leading to the worst April performance in a long long time for stocks. The media believe this is a threat to Trump's support, but is it?

Establishment anti-Trump Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said she is “anxious” about using her voice, claiming that “we are all afraid” because “retaliation is real.”When asked what she would say to people who are afraid or who represent people who are afraid, Murkowski took on an incredibly somber tone. “We are all afraid,” she said, pausing dramatically. “It’s quite a statement.”“But we are. … We’re in a time and a place where I don’t know, I certainly have not — I have not been here before,” she said.“And I’ll tell you I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice...

The Senate, once again, was working into the early morning hours Friday with its new majority leader, Republican John Thune, setting the pace. It wasn’t until just after 2 a.m. that the last of the senators had straggled into the chamber to cast their vote on the confirmation of retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The vote capped a grinding start to the year for the Senate that included several all-night floor sessions and — importantly for Thune — the quickest top-level Cabinet confirmation process in the past 20 years....

Republican lawmakers say there’s a good chance that President Trump’s trade war will boomerang on Republicans politically in 2026, as rising prices and shrinking growth could offset other accomplishments by the GOP. Republican senators are pointing to the 1932 and 1982 elections as historical examples of when trade wars and resulting price inflation hurt their party at the ballot box, and they are worried that history could repeat itself. Many Republican lawmakers view tariffs as a tax hike on American consumers, and some note that the last two times Congress enacted tax hikes on the scale of Trump’s recent tariffs,...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said on Sunday said he’s questioning President Trump’s “endgame” in his approach to tariffs, saying the ongoing “volatility” isn’t good for businesses. “One thing I learned in the private sector is unpredictability can work pretty well in the negotiation, but the private sector — businesses want certainty. They want stability. They don’t like to see volatility,” Johnson said in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.” “And, so, I’ve just been questioning exactly what’s the endgame here? What’s the strategy?” he continued. Johnson called himself an “unabashed free trader” and touted what he sees as the...

Barack Hussein Obama has prevailed in the 2008 presidential election. Obama not only carried all the ‘blue’ states that John Kerry won in 2004, he also flipped several ‘red’ states, such as Colorado, Nevada, Florida and Virginia, delivering a crushing electoral defeat to John McCain. And the blame falls squarely on the GOP for allowing this Marxist to become president of the United States. It has been interesting and amusing to read the numerous ‘post mortems’ from conservative and liberal pundits alike. Yet not one of the post mortems has identified the real reason McCain got clobbered. It was not...

On Wednesday night, the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Senator Tim Scott sent out a letter endorsing John Cornyn. Here is the statement released by Tim Scott: WASHINGTON, D.C. — National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Tim Scott released the following statement endorsing John Cornyn in the Texas U.S. Senate race: "John Cornyn is a leader who delivers on President Trump's agenda and for the people of Texas in the U.S. Senate. He's a proven fighter, man of faith, and essential part of the Republican Senate Majority."

If Republicans like Tillis actually care about lowering Americans’ cost of living, they should slash the federal budget they’ve spent years ballooning.It’s been less than a week since President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff blitz against foreign nations, and Republicans on Capitol Hill are already in full-on freakout mode. Throughout the past several days, GOP members of Congress have run to their favorite legacy media talking heads to express their supposed concerns that the president’s tariff policies could result in higher costs of living for everyday Americans. The latest example of this came on Tuesday, when Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., while...

The formula used by the Trump administration to levy reciprocal tariffs contains a serious math error that over-inflates the impact by about a factor of four, economists at the American Enterprise Institute said. Why it matters: The conservative think tank says the error led to tariff rates massively higher than they should have been to achieve the goals the administration sought.

Classical theory may not care where the steel mills, chip foundries, shipyards, research labs, aircraft plants, oil fields, and supply chains are, but the real world of power politics does. I spent most of my time during 20 years in Washington, D.C. working in a bipartisan manner on trade policy with the aim of keeping here, then bringing back, strategic industries. There was then a coalition of national security Republicans (on my side of the aisle) and labor union Democrats. Democrats did not want to lose the middle-class blue-collar jobs when factories closed. Republicans did not want to lose the...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) claimed Friday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that Republicans seemed willing to “buck” President Donald Trump by passing the Trade Review Act of 2025. It would require a joint resolution of approval for the new tariffs and allow Congress to end tariffs with a resolution of disapproval. Host Dana Bash said, “The veteran Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, they have introduced a bill, a bipartisan bill to require congressional approval for any new tariffs. And I’m sure you saw that Grassley said it’s necessary to reassert Congress’s constitutional role and ensure...

A single Republican senator — Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — voted against the nomination of Harmeet Dhillon to serve as assistant attorney general, veering away from the rest of her GOP colleagues who voted in favor. After her nomination in December, lawmakers finally held a formal vote Thursday and Dhillon was approved in a 52-45 vote. However, Murkowski opposed the nomination and sided with Democrats. President Donald Trump announced in December the nomination of Dhillon to work as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. “Throughout her career, Harmeet has stood up consistently to protect our...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) abruptly canceled all votes for the remainder of the week, halting progress on critical conservative legislation—including the SAVE Act and measures to rein in rogue judicial activism—despite having full authority to keep the House in session.

A handful of Republicans decided to put themselves first and derail President Trump’s agenda for at least a week all because of an obscure issue few people in America care about. As The Gateway Pundit reported, Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) dramatically resigned from the House Freedom Caucus on Monday, accusing her former allies of betrayal, blackmail, and abandoning “pro-family” values. Luna’s departure stems from her fierce advocacy for a bipartisan measure that would allow new mothers and fathers in the House to vote remotely for 12 weeks following the birth of their child. The proposal, co-sponsored with Democratic Representative...

Republicans could be poised to deal a symbolic blow to President Donald Trump’s trade policy, with several GOP senators indicating they planned to join Democrats in a Tuesday vote to block blanket tariffs on Canada. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Monday that she plans to back the resolution led by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that would terminate the national emergency Trump declared last month, citing fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration. Trump has used that declaration to justify 25 percent across-the-board tariffs on America’s northern neighbor and leading trade partner — duties that Trump has threatened to start levying later this...

It’s been almost four years since U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy cast the political dice and diverted from Republican group think. He dared to endorse the impeachment of then-recently replaced President Donald Trump for his incitement of the Jan. 6 insurrectionist attack on the Capitol. “Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person. I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty,” Cassidy said at the time. Now Louisiana’s senior senator finds himself an unfavored incumbent, although a well-funded one, among hardcore GOP types ahead of his 2026 reelection bid. Despite an otherwise consistent track record...

Senate Republicans want Elon Musk to stop talking about Social Security, and the Department of Government Efficiency to leave it alone. Musk’s statement that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme,” and his plans to cut up to 12 percent of the Social Security Administration’s workforce, are giving GOP lawmakers heartburn. They warn that Social Security reform is known as the “third rail” of politics for a reason: Any party that touches it is likely to get zapped come Election Day. And Republicans fear that reductions in staff and field offices will boomerang on them, predicting constituents will grow frustrated if...