Free Republic

President Donald Trump on Saturday signed two executive orders that call for immediately expanding American lumber production and addressing lumber imports' threat to national security. The orders aim to update guidance on production, streamline permitting, and assess possible risks that imports pose to national security. A White House official told Fox News the president identified a crisis in both supply and demand in an industry the U.S. should be entirely self-sufficient in. The executive order notes that the production of timber, lumber, paper, bioenergy, and other wood products is crucial for Americans in construction and energy production. Recent disasters, the...

The Social Security Administration closed two offices this week after the former acting head of the agency resisted the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) attempt to probe SSA’s books. The closure of SSA’s Office of Transformation and the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity comes as DOGE staffers are now embedded within the agency, following the resignation of former acting commissioner Michelle King, a career federal worker who resigned last week over a disagreement with DOGE’s efforts to access sensitive government records. “President Trump has mandated the Federal government eliminate wasteful and inefficient offices and the Office of Transformation...

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told FOX News host Jesse Watters that over 100 people in the intelligence committee who were involved in the "secret sex chats" have been terminated and had their security clearances removed.JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS: Good to see you too. Not so good to see some of these transgender sex chats among the intel officials. What are we going to do about that? DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE TULSI GABBARD: Well, Jesse, what we're going to do has already been done. There are over a hundred people from across the intelligence community that contributed to and...

Behind the shocking revelations of incompetence and unprofessionalism that rocked the Secret Service this week is a longtime reporter who has been diligently uncovering the agency's secrets for years. Carol Leonnig, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who has worked at The Washington Post for nearly 15 years, has broken almost every single story on the agency, a series of shocking reports that on Wednesday resulted in the abrupt resignation of Secret Service Director Julia Pierson. (Pierson called the resignation “painful.”) In less than a week, Leonnig uncovered three scandals that pushed the agency’s first female leader out the door. First,...

CNN — The US Marshals Service has deputized members of Elon Musk’s private security detail, giving them certain rights and protections of federal law enforcement agents, three law enforcement officials familiar with the matter told CNN. It was not immediately clear how many members of Musk’s security team were made special deputies. Musk, the tech billionaire and ally of President Donald Trump, is not eligible to have a US Secret Service detail – meaning members of his personal security detail were limited in what they could do in Washington, DC.

Elon Musk, the Trump administration’s head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), claimed that he has discovered what could be the “biggest fraud in history.” If this is true, it could be one of the country’s biggest and most damaging frauds, along with COVID-19. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was established by Trump to streamline federal operations and cut $2 trillion from federal spending by 2026. Musk has acknowledged that up to $1 trillion in federal government cuts could be feasible. A cursory review of Social Security records by Musk’s department has revealed that the social security safety...

The Social Security system just took a massive hit—thanks to DOGE uncovering what could be one of the largest frauds in American history. With over 395 million Social Security numbers on file, you’d think there was some sort of miracle happening. But the U.S. population? Around 334 million. That’s a discrepancy you can’t just ignore. This isn’t a technical glitch—this is fraud. DOGE’s investigation uncovered 3.5 million Social Security recipients listed as being over 140 years old, with some records showing ages as absurd as 360-369 years old. This isn’t a glitch—this is outright fraud. Even more shocking, over 25...

New York -- When a suspicious video of ballots being ripped up in Pennsylvania gained attention on social media last October, federal agencies responded quickly and called it out as Russian disinformation. On Election Day in November, bomb threats to polling places in numerous states caused relatively few disruptions to voting. It’s one of the many scenarios covered by the nation’s cybersecurity agency in its outreach to state and local officials.The Trump administration’s downsizing and disbanding of federal agencies has hit efforts that improve election security and monitor foreign influence. That could create gaps for America’s enemies to exploit the...

Safety is the new luxury in Gotham. A new app called Protector will offer New Yorkers on-demand access to armed ex-military and law enforcement to chauffeur them around town. “Ultra high-profile individuals like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have dedicated full-time protection teams in place, but for most people, navigating security options is more challenging than it should be,” Protector app founder and CEO Nick Sarath told The Post this week. The app, which launches Tuesday in NYC and Los Angeles, costs $200 an hour for a Protector and a driver. But the price can skyrocket depending on the client’s...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the formation of an “Armed Forces of Europe” in a speech delivered before the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday. While the Trump administration has drawn feigned outrage throughout European capitals for daring to suggest that they meet their NATO defence spending obligations, President Zelensky was hailed with applause at the Munich Security Conference as he called for an international European army. Zelensky argued that a European army would be necessary for Europe to take back its own destiny and to ensure its safety if America refused to come to its rescue.

"Vance Wields Threat of Sanctions, Military Action to Push Putin Into Ukraine Deal," blared the headline of the news report, which was accompanied on X with the caption: "Exclusive: Vance pledged to hit Russia with sanctions and potentially military action if Putin won't agree to a peace deal that guarantees Ukraine's independence." The headline that characterized Vance as threatening Russia---including with American military force---was condemned by the Vice-President on Friday. Vance reiterated that President Donald Trump would bring peace to the region, and said the newspaper had "twisted my words." - - - - - Vance went on to outline...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Europeans this week that "realities" prevent the U.S. from being its security guarantor, and to expect a drawdown of U.S. forces in the region. "We are focusing on security of our own borders. We also face a peer competitor in the Communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indo-Pacific," Hegseth told a meeting of a Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Belgium on Wednesday. "The U.S. is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific. Recognizing the reality of scarcity and making the resourcing trade-offs to...

Billionaire Elon Musk has said there is widespread fraud taking place in the payment of "federal entitlements" like Social Security. **SNIP** What to Know Musk wrote on X on February 11: "At this point, I am 100% certain that the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc) exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you've ever heard by FAR. It's not even close." It follows another post from February 8 in which Musk said he was told there are currently over $100 billion per year of entitlements payments to individuals with no...

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Tuesday that some Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) employees who worked on "mis-, dis-, and malinformation" were put on administrative leave. In a statement to Scripps News, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote CISA needs to "refocus on its mission," starting with election security. "The agency is undertaking an evaluation of how it has executed its election security mission with a particular focus on any work related to mis-, dis-, and malinformation," according to the statement. As first reported by Fox News Digital, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified in April 2022...

Democrats rallied against billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, who also heads up President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), outside the Social Security Administration’s headquarters in Baltimore. Democrats from both chambers gathered to sound alarm after a judge temporarily blocked Musk and DOGE personnel from gaining access to the Treasury Department’s sensitive payment system. “We have one simple message, which is: Elon Musk, keep your hands off of our Social Security,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said at the top of the press conference Monday. “They have accessed highly sensitive personal information on Americans at the Department of Treasury, including...

President Trump is not done laying down the law on corrupt officials who sought not only destroy his political career and but also lock him in prison for life. As The Gateway Pundit’s Kristinn Taylor reported, Trump announced Friday evening he has revoked Joe Biden’s national security clearance and is stopping his courtesy presidential daily intelligence briefings. The president cited Biden’s precedent of doing the same to him in 2021, as well as the report by Special Counsel Robert Hur on Biden’s “poor memory” in his investigation about Biden stealing and mishandling classified documents as reasons for his action. Trump...

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) introduced legislation to stop the "unjust double tax" on Social Security benefits this week. The bill, called the Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act, would deliver on one of President Donald Trump's campaign promises and leave more money for senior citizens. Per Breitbart, the bill "would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to terminate the inclusion of tier I railroad retirement benefits and Social Security benefits in an individual’s gross income."

Conservatives on social media blasted Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., after she and other Democrats protesting President Donald Trump attempted to enter the Department of Education building in Washington, D.C., while accosting a security guard in the process. Thirty House Democrats attempted to enter the Department of Education building on Friday morning to meet with acting Education Secretary Denise L. Carter regarding Trump’s plans to significantly downsize or even eliminate the department, but they were stopped by security. Video of the Democrats attempting to convince the visibly uninterested security guard to let them in quickly spread on social media, sparking strong...

President Trump announced Friday that he is “immediately revoking” former President Joe Biden’s security clearances and access to daily intelligence briefings – telling The Post he doesn’t “trust” his predecessor with such sensitive information. Trump, 78, argued in a Truth Social post that the former president set the precedent when he barred him from receiving access to the same briefings four years ago, citing Trump’s “erratic behavior.” “There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information,” Trump wrote. “Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,” the president...

The latest news on USAID is going to cause the biggest leftist meltdown yet because their least favorite agency is now taking over.As The Gateway Pundit reported, USAID has been in the crosshairs for the past week, given the billions of dollars of waste exposed by DOGE. Some of the examples exposed have been absolutely stunning.(snip)Now, the news for Americans gets even better. X Owner and DOGE Chairman Elon Musk announced a short time ago that Customs and Border Protection had taken over the building.