Free Republic

Eight months before the crucial midterm elections, the administration of President Donald Trump is battling high living costs. The strike against Iran threatens to undo the first successes achieved in the struggle against inflation via falling energy prices. Ludwig Erhard understood the formula for sustained political success. The equation was as simple as it was powerful: stable money circulating in free markets coordinates the millions of individual decisions made by households, businesses, and credit institutions -- day after day -- in the most efficient manner. Stable money requires a lean state. Public debt, meanwhile, is widely regarded as the primary...

At present, there is no sign of de-escalation in the Iran conflict. The Strait of Hormuz has become a geopolitical chokepoint that could plunge the global economy into a severe crisis. While European governments work on emergency plans to mitigate soaring energy prices, the maritime insurance market is experiencing a seismic shock. War is raging in Iran. Amid the fog of propaganda, it is increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction, to distinguish AI-generated material from actual bomb strikes, and to see behind the carefully woven veil of media spin and national interests. Yet, we attempt here to make sense...

The story you heard first — that President Donald Trump fired Kristi Noem over a $220 million ad campaign — isn't wrong, exactly. But it's incomplete. The ad spending lit the fuse; an eight-word question that Noem refused to answer in plain English plunged the detonator.Here's what really pushed Trump to fire her.It was previously reported that the breaking point for Trump was when Noem testified on Tuesday that he had personally approved $220 million in Homeland Security advertising, including a cinematic spot of her riding a horse in front of Mount Rushmore with a voiceover that said, "From President...

The Supreme Court struck down the majority of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in February, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren isn’t letting the Administration weasel out of paying back American taxpayers. “If your Administration is successful in its campaign to avoid paying back illegally collected tariffs, it would amount to a theft in broad daylight from each and every American family that has paid the price of your failed economic agenda,” Warren said in a Wednesday statement. Per her office’s estimates, the tariffs have cost families about $1,700 each. The Supreme Court on February 20 ruled against the tariffs 6-3, arguing...

US political commentator and journalist Tucker Carlson claimed on Monday that Saudi Arabia and Qatar had caught and “arrested Israeli Mossad agents planning bombings in those countries”. “Why would the Israelis be committing bombings in Gulf countries, which are also being attacked by Iran?” Carlson said on his show. “Aren’t they on the same side?” “Israel wants to hurt Iran - and Qatar, and the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, and Oman and Kuwait,” he added. Carlson also alleged that Israel deliberately sows chaos among America’s Arab allies. The American journalist did not cite a source for the claim,...

At least 85 people, almost all of them young girls, have been killed in an air strike on a primary school in southern Iran, the Iranian judiciary said. The attack on Saturday morning hit Shajareh Tayyebeh schoolin the city of Minab, in Hormozgan province, as the United States and Israel began launching strikes on targets across Iran.The victims were between seven and 12 years old, according to Iran's Tasnim and Fars news agencies. A staff member at the Minab school, who asked not to be named, told Middle East Eye she remains in shock at the intensity of the attack....

If China invades Taiwan and cuts off its chip exports to American companies, the tech industry and the U.S. economy would be crippled.Federal officials have for years tried to wean Silicon Valley from its dependence on Taiwan, an island democracy roughly the size of Maryland that makes 90 percent of the world’s high-end computer chips. In secret briefings held in Washington and Silicon Valley, national security officials warned executives from companies like Apple, Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm that China was making plans to retake Taiwan, which Beijing has long considered a breakaway territory. A Chinese blockade of Taiwan, the...

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...

More than half of Americans in a survey released Friday rated President Trump’s first year back in office as a “failure.” The CNN/SSRS survey found that 58 percent of U.S. adults said 2025 was a failure for the president on a number of issues. Another 42 percent said the year was a “success,” and about 1 percent had no opinion. Overall, 61 percent of respondents said they disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job. Of that number, 35 percent cited personal behavior — including putting self-interests above the nation, bullying and being disrespectful, erratic behavior, allegations of racism,...

In a recent episode of her podcast, Candace Owens said Charlie Kirk told her he was a “time traveler” who was sent to “X-Men school,” and alleged he was monitored since childhood. Controversial US political commentator Candace Owens claimed in a recent episode of her podcast that the late activist Charlie Kirk told her that he was a “time traveler,” and knew that he would die young. “It is an absolute fact that Charlie Kirk thought that he was a time traveler. He told me he was a time traveler. Repeatedly,” she claimed. Owens told listeners that “awareness is the...

As the U.S. military escalates its posture around Venezuela—with naval deployments in the Caribbean, B-52 overflights, lethal strikes on alleged drug boats, and confirmed CIA covert operations—advocates of regime change are reviving a dangerous analogy. Many have pointed to the United States’ 1989 invasion of Panama and toppling of dictator Manuel Noriega as proof that swift, surgical operations can get the job done. In private conversations with several current and former U.S. officials, they have nodded toward this parallel. Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who just last month was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, has appealed to the United...

FOR THE respectable men running western Europe’s three biggest countries, misery is heaped upon misery. All are presiding over stagnant living standards and declining global influence. In Britain and France their rivals from the populist right are itching to take power (even the Alternative for Germany, or the AfD, may win a couple of state elections next year). And America, their key ally, has just accused them of hastening Europe towards what it calls “civilisational erasure”. Those three leaders also warn of a catastrophe—if the parties of the populist right should triumph. Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor, describes his government as...

Is Britain’s upstart Reform party really as committed to free speech as they would have us believe? Tucker Carlson was meant to converse with leader Nigel Farage on his trip to London last week. But, Cockburn hears, Farage pulled out after the stateside controversy about Carlson’s recent choice to chat with “groyper” leader and bête noire Nick Fuentes. Who knew the leading light of the British right would be so sensitive about “platforming?” Top Farage advisor James Orr, who also serves as an Anglo-whisperer for Vice President J.D. Vance, made excuses on Reform’s behalf. “It’s the donors and consultants, always,”...

As the US Navy remains primed for action in the Southern Caribbean, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro prepares for what could be an American attempt to remove him. And as President Trump alternates between calling Maduro on the phone and authorizing air strikes, a bevy of misinformation is being peddled by public figures with an agenda. There are so many claims and counter-claims on the air waves right now that it’s difficult to separate fact from fiction. A sizable chunk of this disinformation is of course being sold by Maduro himself, a man who has learned from his predecessor and mentor,...

President Trump is being misled into a regime-change war close to home. Few Americans nowadays find much to celebrate in the Iraq War or the intervention that overthrew Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Regimes were successfully changed both times, but what came after the dictators’ downfall was civil war, regional instability and mass-migration flows that exported many of those nations’ troubles to their neighbors. Now the Trump administration wants to do to Venezuela’s despot, Nicolás Maduro, what George W. Bush did to Saddam Hussein and Barack Obama did to Gaddafi. That will predictably do to the Americas – including the US –...

In the most significant economic case to reach the Supreme Court in years, Trump’s authority to issue emergency tariffs faced deep skepticism from key conservatives — including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. • While justices had tough questions for both sides, a majority expressed reservations about the administration relying on declared emergencies to issue the unchecked tariffs. • As plaintiffs presented their case, Kavanaugh repeatedly noted that courts had previously allowed then-President Richard Nixon to use similar emergency powers to impose tariffs during his administration. • Both sides previously framed the...

The Trump administration excels at sowing uncertainty. But it is sending an unambiguous message to crypto entrepreneurs who may be operating on the fringes of the law, or outside of it: Don’t worry about a thing. ICYMI: President Donald Trump on Thursday issued yet another reprieve for a crypto mogul who happens to have greatly enriched the Trump family’s net worth. Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, served a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2023 to charges related to anti-money-laundering violations. Zhao, widely known as “CZ,” was released in September 2024. After months...

"When we declare war is supposed to be done by Congress. It's not supposed to be done willy nilly," Paul addedRepublican Sen. Rand Paul again slammed President Donald Trump over the administration's continued strikes against alleged drug boats off Venezuela, reiterating that any armed conflict should be approved by Congress. Speaking with British journalist Piers Morgan, Paul rejected the administration's claim that the strikes were targeting smugglers carrying different drugs, including fentanyl. "There is no fentanyl made in Venezuela. Not just a little bit, there's none being made. These are outboard boats that, in order for them to get to...

Brick by brick, President Donald Trump is building a wall around the world’s largest economy. As America’s tariff barriers on everyone else have gone up, so has the drawbridge, making it harder for migrants to enter the country. The president wants to turn America into a fortress that keeps out foreign incursions. In fact, he is cutting America off from the very goods and talent that helped make its economy the envy of the world. Already the damage is starting to show; once wreaked, it will not easily be reversed. That is not how investors see it. In the six...

Right-wing commentator Cadance Owens dropped her bombshell after teasing over the weekend that she got information that Tyler Robinson was framed in the case of Charlie Kirk's assassination. She said that everything the agencies told about the Charlie Kirk assassination has been a lie. She said a politician's name came up as she dug deeper into the case. Candace said she knows everything is a lie because law enforcement is even lying that Tyler Robinson, the accused, is suicidal. Candace questioned how Tyler Robinson was willing to turn himself in but did not confess. He was 'bewildered' to have known...