Free Republic

In a sharp criticism of NATO’s European members that has become increasingly common in the Trump administration, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has issued a stark warning, urging the alliance’s member states to dramatically increase their defense budgets or risk undermining the credibility of the entire organization.“NATO is only as strong as the commitments of its members,” Rubio told The Free Press in an interview. “If the US is carrying the lion’s share, with European nations as mere junior partners, that’s not a true alliance—it’s a dependency.”Rubio’s comments come amid rising frustration in Washington over NATO’s continued reliance on...

State Dept. to close woke programs. The Department of State revealed on Tuesday the Trump administration’s plans to slash the agency’s bloat. Internal documents obtained by the Free Press revealed that the State Department will close 132 agency offices — a 17% reduction. The office terminations also reportedly involve eliminating 700 positions, including civil service and foreign service employees. The news outlet reported that the offices earmarked for closure include those dedicated to advancing human rights, democracy overseas, and thwarting extremism and war crimes. The State Departmen's new shake-up will consolidate 137 offices by transferring them to other parts of...

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “All In” that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is acting “unconstitutionally and illegally” on behalf of President Donald Trump. Discussing Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk, Markey said, “There have been no charges that have been lodged against her, no evidence produced except for an op ed that she wrote in the Tufts University newspaper as part of a debate going on at Tufts University. Beyond that, they have charged her with nothing. And so to the extent to which this is more like Russia or more like Belarus, where someone might be swept...

Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) says the Trump administration should drop nuclear negotiations with Iran and finish off the country's nuclear facilities with a military strike. "Waste that s—t," the Pennsylvania Democrat told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview on Wednesday. "You're never going to be able to negotiate with that kind of regime that has been destabilizing the region for decades already, and now we have an incredible window, I believe, to do that, to strike and destroy Iran's nuclear facilities." Fetterman dismissed the foreign policy experts who warn that striking Iran would lead to the outbreak of...

This week, District of Columbia Judge Ibn al-Murderu ordered the restoration of the USAID funds designated for Hamas that he says "Secretary of State Marco Rubio has illegally canceled. The desire for government efficiency does not override the commitments made by the prior Biden Administration." ACLU spokesperson Bertram Petty praised the ruling, calling it "both correct and humane. Israel has cut off the humanitarian aid to Gaza that Hamas had been pilfering to supplement the contractual payments USAID had been making to the organization. This has made it impossible for Hamas to meet its payroll obligations to its fighters. These...

The Sting (1973) is a classic crime-comedy film directed by George Roy Hill. Set in 1930s Chicago, it follows con artist Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) and veteran grifter Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) as they team up to pull off an elaborate con against a ruthless mob boss, Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). After Lonnegan's men kill Hooker's partner, the duo orchestrates a fake betting parlor scheme to swindle him out of a fortune. With clever twists, period charm, and a ragtime soundtrack featuring Scott Joplin's music, the film builds to a satisfying, surprising climax. It won seven Oscars, including Best Picture....

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented to "to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace" regarding the war in Ukraine, a U.S. spokesperson said on Thursday, after Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement that Rubio had communicated the same message the U.S. team had to the Ukrainian delegation and European allies in Paris, where she said it met an "encouraging reception."

The State Dept. Global Engagement Center was the epicenter of the Dept of State operation to control speech on social media platforms. Following revelations from within the Twitter Files, and facing increasing scrutiny, the GEC operation was shut down – but the remnants of the operation remained active within the State Dept.The terms “disinformation, misinformation and malinformation” were weaponized by the State Dept to define speech against their interests and block, deplatform and remove any voices, including in the U.S., they determined were against the interests of the U.S. government. The COVID-19 and vaccine narrative were both examples of speech...

President Trump has come out and said the "Maryland man" was a MS-13 terrorist gang-banger, an illegal alien from El Salvador, and was given an order to be deported, and that the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the courts cannot interfere with the Executive Branch foreign policy decisions. Marco Rubio has said the same thing. Stephen Miller has said the same thing. The President of El Salvador has basically said the same thing and that this man is not going to come back to the United States. The media keeps saying this terrorist gang-banger is a "Maryland man" (basically a...

Colleges around the country are reporting some of their international students' visas are being revoked unexpectedly, expressing alarm over what appears to be a new level of government scrutiny.Visas can be canceled for a number of reasons, but college leaders say the government has been quietly terminating students' legal residency status with little notice to students or schools. That marks a shift from past practice and leaves students vulnerable to detention and deportation.The list of colleges that have discovered students have had their legal status terminated includes Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA and Ohio State University.The Trump administration has targeted students...

In unprecedented exchanges on the social media platform X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, DOGE head (and X owner) Elon Musk heavily chastised warmongering Polish Minister Radosław Sikorski over the issue of Ukraine usage of Musk’s Starlink terminals.Rubio reached the point of asking the Minister to ‘say thank you’ because Starlink terminals kept Russian forces away from the Polish border.Before we start with ‘who said what,’ let’s remember who Radosław Sikorski is. Look at what he posted (and deleted) when he felt that the US under Biden had exploded the Nordstream pipeline:Warmonger. So, Sikorski said ‘thank you’ – to...

Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) sharply criticized President Trump's deportation of illegal aliens to Guatemala, saying "everybody in America wants violent criminals who are here illegally out of the country, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. That's what Judge Boasberg was trying to establish when he ordered the plane carrying 200 illegal alien criminals out of the country to turn back. Now we'll have to endure the embarrassing spectacle of having the President of the United States jailed for contempt of court." "We have been a beacon to the world for the brightest minds...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is assuring fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization member nations that the United States considers the defense alliance indispensable. Rubio made the comments during his address to the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday. He dismissed panicked speculation that President Donald Trump was planning to pull out of the alliance. "As we speak right now, the United States is as active in NATO as it has ever been. And some of this hysteria and hyperbole that I see in the global media and some domestic media in the United States about NATO is...

The Chavista regime of Nicolás Maduro is playing with fire and knows it! US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a stern warning yesterday from Guyana: any aggression against this country or ExxonMobil's operations in the Essequibo will have "serious consequences" for Caracas. In a press conference alongside Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, Rubio didn't mince words: "It would be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime, a very bad week, and it wouldn't end well." The message is clear: the US will not tolerate the bravado of a declining leftist dictator. Maduro, the tyrant who has plunged Venezuela into...

Nearly two months into his second term, President Donald Trump’s approval rating matches his all-time high. Congressional Republicans also enjoy record ratings, while views of congressional Democrats tumble near an all-time low, according to the latest Fox News Poll. Half of voters, 49%, approve of the job Trump is doing as president, matching his high from April 2020. That’s also better than at the same point in his first term (43% approved in March 2017). He is at high marks among key groups, including women, Black voters and voters under age 30. (For reference, in January, a 52% majority of...

This is the moment alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal organisation Tren de Aragua were hauled into El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Centre. The United States sent over 200 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang to be imprisoned, President Nayib Bukele said. 'Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organisation, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country, he said on X. He shared a video of several men in handcuffs and shackles being transferred from a plane to a heavily guarded convoy. The gang has been linked to kidnapping, extortion, organised crime and contract killings. Bukele, in a...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared South Africa's ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool, persona non grata and ordered him expelled from the United States. This immediately deprived him of diplomatic immunity and required him to leave the US in just a matter of days.Using X as his medium to announce the defenestration of Rasool, Rubio was blunt.South Africa's Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country. Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS. We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.The...

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States will have contact with Russia on Wednesday about the agreement reached with Ukraine on a 30-day ceasefire and steps toward ending the war there. There has been no official response from Moscow since U.S.-Ukraine talks wrapped up in Saudi Arabia after more than eight hours, with Kyiv agreeing to a 30-day ceasefire and the U.S. restoring military aid and intelligence sharing. "We all eagerly await the Russian response and urge them strongly to consider ending all hostilities," Rubio said during a stop in Ireland on his way back to Washington....

The information from Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks good. During his flight to Saudi Arabia, Secretary Rubio answered a few questions about the U.S. delegation expectations of the meeting with Ukraine officials.Rubio notes the aforementioned “minerals deal” is not an important part of the larger objective. Secretary Rubio says that finding out if Ukraine’s desire for peace with Russia is true, in good faith or not, is the key objective. A pragmatic Rubio also notes that Ukraine is likely going to have to give up lost territory to achieve peace.FOX NEWS – […] “”The minerals deal is on the...

-snip- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "the ball is now in Russia's court", speaking in Jeddah after the peace talks. He echoed the Ukrainian president, calling it a "positive step" in the direction of longer lasting peace, expressing his hope that Moscow will also agree. Mr Rubio added that his delegation was " going to take the offer" to Russia. He added: "We're going to tell them this is what's on the table, Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking, and now it'll be up to them to say yes or no. "I hope they're going...