Free Republic

Several drag queens protested and booed President Donald Trump as he attended a performance of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday. The president’s visit marked his first since the inauguration. Video captured the moment several drag queens stood up in the audience as he appeared: The president has always hailed Les Misérables as his favorite musical. As Consequence recently reported, half the play’s cast decided to boycott the performance due to the president’s visit. Several cast members of Les Misérables will not be performing “One Day More” at their Kennedy Center concert next month — instead, they’ll be...

On January 20, 2025, the first day of his second presidential term, Donald Trump signed an executive order: “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The bad old days of the “censorship-industrial complex,” allegedly responsible for suppressing online speech under President Joe Biden, were over.Except they weren’t. The driving force behind online censorship had never been the U.S. government, which meant that freedom of speech could not be restored by the stroke of a president’s pen. Rather, the European Union has wielded its Digital Services Act (DSA) to restrict the speech not just of Europeans but especially of Americans...

As images of protests in Southern California have flooded television and social media in recent days, a key question has emerged: Why are so many protesters carrying Mexican flags at an American political protest? The sea of red, white and green Mexican flags at anti-deportation protests this week in Los Angeles has been seized upon by conservatives who argue that the demonstrations are inherently un-American, causing some protesters to consider leaving them at home. Photos of masked provocateurs waving Mexican flags atop burning Waymo taxis spread instantly across conservative social media this weekend. Republicans pointed to them as a prime...

On Sunday, The Atlantic magazine published a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory by David Frum based not on fact, but entirely on the speculation of a fervid liberal imagination.In "For Trump, This Is a Dress Rehearsal," Frum provides his theory that former President Donald Trump called out the National Guard during the immigration riots in Los Angeles to prepare for a military takeover of the 2026 midterms.

President Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their Monday phone call that he believes there's a chance of reaching a nuclear deal with Iran and he therefore opposes military action at this time, an Israeli official and a U.S. official tell Axios. Why it matters: The call between Trump and Netanyahu took place several days before the expiration of the two-month deadline Trump gave Iran for reaching a deal. Iranian officials have been finalizing their response to the U.S. nuclear deal proposal, and are expected to deliver a formal rejection this week. A sixth round of nuclear talks...

Legendary sports play-by-play man Bob Costas thinks that the corporate press is simply doing “MAGA media,” leaving the news industry without a dissenting or oppositional voice. On Monday night, Costas blasted corporate media outlets at the Mirror Awards, held in New York City. At the event, held by Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, of which Costas is an alumnus, the longtime American sportscaster received the Fred Dressler Leadership Award for making “distinct, consistent and unique contributions to the public’s understanding of the media.” However, Costas didn’t use his speech to reflect on his years in sports media alone. Instead, he singled...

NoKings.org activist organizing is planning nationwide anti-Amercan (anti-Trump) "protests" on June 14, the U.S. Army birthday national celebration. See their partners page. They have many far-left sponsors including teachers and labor unions, democrats, climate change believers, Bernie Sanders, LGBTXYZ groups, etc. Most likely many of these sponsor groups receive public funds.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing anti-diversity and anti-transgender executive orders in grant funding requirements that LGBTQ+ organizations say are unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar said Monday that the federal government cannot force recipients to halt programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion or acknowledge the existence of transgender people in order to receive grant funding. The order will remain in effect while the legal case continues, although government lawyers will likely appeal. The funding provisions “reflect an effort to censor constitutionally protected speech and services promoting DEI and...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced his plans to sue the Trump administration for “illegally act[ing] to federalize the National Guard” to contain the Los Angeles anti-deportation riots, accusing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of being “in over his head.” When asked by left-wing YouTuber Brian Taylor Cohen if he has any “confidence” that Hegseth will be as “principled” as former Defense Secretary Mark Esper was on Monday, Newsom coldly responded, “Pete Hegseth is a joke. He’s a joke. Everybody knows it, so in over his head. What an embarrassment.” “That guy’s just weakness masquerading as strength. I don’t even know...

@RandPaul We can cut the proposed border funding in half, from $150 billion to $75 billion, and still secure our border and protect the American people. Let me give you an example of how this is excessive. Let’s take the proposed border wall. Proposed fence cost: $46.5 billion Actual fence cost: $6.5 billion How did I come up with that number? Math based on costs, according to Border Patrol. $6.5 million per mile x 1,000 miles of border wall = $6.5 billion Where is that extra $40 billion going? I’m all for hiring new people to help secure our borders,...

Monday on CNN’s “Inside Politics,” host Dana Bash said President Donald Trump was acting as the “arsonist” by sending the National Guard to Los Angeles. Reporter Manu Raju said, “Just to get the point of how much Donald Trump wants this fight, I mean, he’s been posting and talking about it pretty much nonstop over the weekend, including just moments ago saying if we had not done this, send the National Guard in Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated. Now, I’m not quite sure if that’s exactly the case of what people are saying on the ground here. But...

Collin Rugg @CollinRugg BREAKING: A panicking CA Governor Gavin Newsom calls on ICE director Tom Homan to **arrest** him as the riots in Los Angeles rage on. "Tom, arrest me, let's go." The governor was seen lashing out at the Trump administration as his state descends into chaos. 9:39 PM · Jun 8, 2025

SNIP In her speech, the Mexican president not only criticized the raids, but also argued that the United States owes its prosperity to the work of millions of Mexicans. "The United States is what it is also thanks to the work of Mexicans who live on the other side of the border," she said. She added that her government has already contacted the detainees and their families through Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente and the consulates. However, the president avoided mentioning the Mexican government's responsibility in regional migration control or bilateral cooperation on security and trade issues. Nor...

The deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles is a “dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos,” former Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement that did not condemn the riot against immigration enforcement agents. Harris, the failed 2024 Democrat presidential candidate, broke her silence more than 30 hours after rioters rampaged against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents seeking to enforce the nation’s immigration law. “Los Angeles is my home,” Harris said in a statement posted to X. “And like so many Americans, I am appalled at what we are witnessing on the streets of our city....

You can’t make this up.

Federalizing the National Guard in response to ICE protests risks bloodshed—which is exactly what this administration wants.

said that it has suspended senior national correspondent Terry Moran over a late night X post, since deleted, attacking Trump administration official Stephen Miller as a “world class hater.” “ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others,” a network spokesperson said. “The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards — as a result, Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.”

Elon Musk’s blowup with President Trump may have doomed Washington’s most potent partnership, but the billionaire’s signature cost-cutting project has become deeply embedded in Mr. Trump’s administration and could be there to stay.At the Department of Energy, for example, a former member of the Department of Government Efficiency is now serving as the chief of staff.At the Interior Department, DOGE members have been converted into federal employees and embedded into the agency, said a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. And at the Environmental Protection Agency, where a spokeswoman said...

Donald Trump has frequently poured scorn on those who served in the US military. Even though he avoided serving after obtaining a note from a friendly doctor who said he had bone spurs, he famously mocked late Republican John McCain, the 2008 presidential candidate and a prisoner-of-war, saying he preferred people who did not get captured. He would later stun his chief of staff, former Marine General John Kelly, during a visit to France for the centennial anniversary of the end of the First World War, when he allegedly claimed those who gave their lives were “suckers” and “losers”. Now,...

Musk and Gor disliked each other since before Trump reclaimed power on Jan. 20 — with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO describing Gor as “sleazy” during the transition and questioning his staffing picks. But the world’s richest man had the president’s ear and friendship through last week. Simmering behind the scenes was a grudge nursed by Gor over a March 6 Cabinet meeting, during which Musk “humiliated” him by slamming the pace of staffing the administration, said the sources, each of whom have interacted closely with Gor. “He was bragging to other people that he was going to get one...