Free Republic

…It’s a transformational moment. The United States, I think, is now, as President Trump pointed out last night and I believe deeply, we are headed into a new era that I think will make the world a safer place. We have a President who yesterday – President Trump made clear in his inaugural speech that one of the primary goals of American foreign policies is the promotion of peace – of course peace through strength, peace and always without abandoning our values. But I think it’s extraordinary that it’s something that needs to be said and hasn’t been said enough...

President Donald Trump, in the first hours of his administration, revoked former President Joe Biden’s decision to remove Cuba from the United States’ list of state sponsors of terrorism (SST). Cuba’s redesignation as a state sponsor of terrorism is part of a list of 78 executive actions signed by Biden that were revoked by President Trump on Monday evening. In the final week of his administration, former President Biden had Cuba removed from the SST list, a designation the communist-ruled nation first receiving in 1982 and held until 2015. At that time, former President Barack Obama removed Cuba from the...

The Senate on Monday unanimously confirmed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) as America’s 72nd secretary of State, putting in place the first member of President Trump’s cabinet on the day of his inauguration. Rubio’s confirmation vote passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, 99-0. Rubio also was able to cast a vote for himself. “No one on this body can doubt that Marco Rubio is an intelligent man with remarkable understanding of American foreign policy and a very deep commitment to the American Dream,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in remarks on the Senate floor. [Snip]

The grim lesson of the devastating wildfires in California over the past week, which turned my community into ruins, is clear: private services work, and public services do not. I live in Pacific Palisades. My house is the last one standing on the corner. There is rubble in every direction. The streets along the route my wife and I used to walk in the evening are a post-apocalyptic scene. Every beautiful house we admired is destroyed; every child our kids played with is gone. A mile away, the center of town — which we call the “village” — is a...

President Joe Biden’s farewell speech to the State Department on Monday will reportedly omit his most serious policy blunders. The octogenarian is scheduled to give multiple speeches this week during his last seven days in office to frame his presidency as a success. The planned speaking tour comes after Americans told Gallup they will remember Biden as the second worse president in the history of the republic. The two policy failures Biden will ignore during Monday’s State Department speech include his deadly Afghan withdrawal, which took the lives of 13 U.S. troops, and the Americans who died at the hands...

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is planning to clear 420 acres of trees in a state forest in order to build a solar farm, according to a recent report. A “top state official” confirmed the Michigan DNR’s plans to clear the acres of state forest for a solar farm to MLive.com. The acres being cleared from the state forest are reportedly among the “4,000 acres of public land” throughout Michigan that will be leased in order to address decreased “revenues from hunting and fishing licenses,” as well as Michigan falling “behind building enough renewable energy.” Leasing 4,000 acres...

The only man to lead both the FBI and the CIA urged caution to senators who might vote to confirm former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and Kash Patel to lead the FBI, according to a letter sent to senators this week. "I am deeply concerned about the potential nominations of Mr. Kash Patel to lead the FBI and the inclusion of Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as DNI in intelligence roles," William Webster, who led the FBI during the Carter and Reagan administrations and the CIA after that, said in a letter to senators on Thursday. Webster...

Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan earlier this month, pleaded not guilty on Monday to the state charges he is facing, including murder. Mangione’s not guilty plea comes after he was extradited late last week from Pennsylvania, where he was initially found and arrested, to New York, where the trial will be held. He is also facing four federal counts, including a charge of murder through use of a firearm, which could allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty. But while prosecutors have said the state and federal cases will progress on...

Fifty-one-year-old Troy Williams has been arrested in connection with allegedly shooting at officers and also shooting a Georgia State Police K-9, WSB-TV reported on Friday. State Troopers pulled Williams over for an “obscured license plate” Wednesday. Williams took off after handing a driver’s license to a trooper and a chase ensued. At some point Williams alleged fired at pursuing officers and then fled into woods on foot. One of Williams’ gunshots allegedly hit K-9 Amor in the leg.

It’s going to be awkward at FBI headquarters next month when President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the bureau likely takes over. *** Patel has promised to “clean house” at the Hoover Building, and hold all those who “abused their power” during the Russiagate “witch hunt” accountable. He might start with the officials and agents who secretly vacuumed up his phone records and emails starting in late 2017, when he led a House Intelligence Committee investigation into the FBI’s reliance on Hillary Clinton’s false opposition research to surveil a Trump campaign official as a supposed “Russian agent.” According to a...

This map visualizes the average credit card debt held by households in each U.S. state and ranks the states where residents pay off the debt the fastest and slowest. Data is sourced from Bankrate (2024) who also used average monthly household income to calculate how long it takes to pay off balances. Households in Alaska and Washington D.C. are carrying more than $7,000 in credit card debt, the highest across the country. However, with average annual household incomes of $109,000 and $149,000, residents in both states can pay off their debt in about 15–20 months. In fact, glancing through the...

As many as 3 million New Yorkers may be fraudulently reaping taxpayer-funded Medicaid and other public health insurance benefits at a potential cost of $20 billion a year, a staggering new study claims. About 5.5 million Empire State residents have incomes low enough to meet the standard eligibility limits for Medicaid or the Essential Plan, a related public health insurance program. But with expanded eligibility rules under Obamacare and an increased demand for a controversial homecare program, enrollment has swelled to 8.5 million, a potential surplus of 3 million.

Donald Trump is on the cusp of an improbable comeback victory in the 2024 presidential election because the American people would not let him fail. The campaign and its staff worked incredibly hard, and from the outside, the 2024 effort seemed to be the most well-organized, and professional, of Trump’s three attempts at the presidency. Yet there were moments when Trump seemed to falter, and when he was lifted up by people who decided, on their own, that they would not let him lose. Take, for example, the song “Fighter,” written by Breitbart News’ own Jon Kahn and recorded in...

While Congress stagnates, America’s state houses are drafting and passing policies affecting millions. Now, more than ever, those legislative bodies operate without input from an opposition party or dissenting governor.Illustration by The Epoch Times, ShutterstockAs of Oct. 21, there are 23 Republican trifectas, 17 Democratic trifectas, and 10 divided governments where neither party holds trifecta control, according to Ballotpedia. A trifecta means one party holds the state governorship and a majority in the state house and senate.Heading into November’s general election, legislative supermajorities exist in 57 of the 99 legislative chambers in the union, according to data compiled by state...

Once in a great while, what happens at the bottom of the ballot can reshape a state’s political future for decades to come. While New Yorkers on Election Day will vote on the controversial “Equal Rights Amendment,” Ohio is ground zero for an effort to wrest control away from the people and give it to unelected, Fauci-like bureaucrats to achieve “redistricting reform.” And the movement is anything but organic: It’s an out-of-state (and even international) attempt by left-wing politicians to trick voters into rewriting our state constitution by passing Issue 1. The ballot measure — masterminded by the likes of...

A “surprise” win for former President Donald Trump in a traditionally blue state is “possible” this election cycle, James Blair, who is running the political operations for the Trump campaign, said during an interview on Breitbart News Saturday. Breitbart News Saturday host Matt Boyle asked Blair what he thinks about a “possible surprise” in a state such as Virginia, New Mexico, Minnesota, New York, or New Jersey. “I know President Trump is doing another event upcoming very soon at Madison Square Garden in New York City. I know that state’s near and dear to his heart. We talked with him...

Former President Donald Trump’s Sunday golf outing at his Trump International Golf Club was a last-minute decision, sources told CNN.​This unscheduled appearance has ignited speculation and questions regarding a security incident that occurred at the club earlier that day.Sources revealed that the golf outing was not on Trump’s public schedule, raising concerns about how an individual was seemingly able to time an incident during Trump’s presence at the club.

The State Department sought to denigrate two reporters and a member of Congress as part of damage control attempts over having helped fund an advertisers’ “blacklist” of The Post and other outlets allegedly spreading “misinformation,” according to internal documents. In March 2023, the department distributed press guidance about how to counter bombshell reports by “Twitter Files” scribe Matt Taibbi and Washington Examiner investigative journalist Gabe Kaminsky concerning the State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC). Taibbi’s first report about the GEC, in a lengthy Twitter thread published Jan. 3, 2023, revealed efforts to pressure US social media platforms early in the COVID-19...

A Texas state representative in Houston has decided to leave the “almost unrecognizable” Democrat Party for the Republican Party. In her announcement on Friday, State Rep. Shawn Thierry explained she made the switch because the Democrat Party “has veered so far left, so deep into the progressive abyss, that it now champions policies that I cannot, in good conscience, support,” the Texas Tribune reported. In a social media post, Thierry said she had voted Democrat her entire life because her parents believed it was the “party of the people.” “But as the years have passed, I have watched with dismay...

The Illinois State Comptroller has cut fund payments to a small town after the town's embattled mayor refused to hand over finance reports. Susana Mendoza said that she would be immediately suspending 'offset' fund payments to Dolton after the village failed to hand over financial reports. The money is on pace to total $135,000, according to The Chicago Tribune, and is she threatening to fine them a total of $78,600 if they don't hand over the reports. Mayor Tiffany Henyard has been clinging onto power despite criticism over her management of Dolton and her alleged lavish spending. Mendoza said that...