Free Republic

Former President Joe Biden ran as the steady moderate who would restore normalcy. In practice, his presidency became something stranger: a cognitively declining president whose White House staff, driven by "Trump derangement syndrome," used his office to reverse policies that were working and to impose measures that would have been considered extreme even during the 2016 election.

U.S. policy used to jam up GPS. Now, those signals beam into your pocket.Shortly after the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2000, a new type of Silicon Valley start-up began to crop up: companies specializing in GPS chips. At the time, GPS — the Global Positioning System, a constellation of satellites that provide location and time to receivers on Earth, courtesy of the American taxpayer — was still relatively niche for everyday people. This small handful of companies was founded on the basis of two gambles. One was that, like any other chip, GPS chips — at the time,...

The U.S. Coast Guard said “politically charged” messages led to the removal of an environmental ​group’s vessel from a fleet of sailing ships gathered in New ‌York on Saturday to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary. A ship owned by the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater environmental organization was forced out of the Sail4th 250 parade in New York Harbor, ​the Coast Guard said in a statement emailed to Reuters. The ship had ​banners that read “Save the Clean Water Act” and “Indigenous Rights, Racial Justice, ⁠Climate Solutions”. Participants in the event had agreed to refrain from displaying political or ​politically charged...

If you want to know why Politico risked the inevitable mockery that will ensue by whining absurdly about the supposed dangers posed to the environment by the America 250 fireworks the answer is easily supplied by simply reading the first word of the title of their Friday KvetchFest, "Trump plans record fireworks show, internal docs warn of smoky skies."Substitute the name of any Democrat president such as Clinton or Obama or Autopen and the silly story by the Politico troika of Alex Guillen, Miranda Willson, and Ariel Wittenberg would have been nonexistent. Yes, they just can't allow President Donald Trump...

Trump's speech a missed opportunity for unity.

President Donald Trump said it is “ridiculous” for the United States to maintain its current level of support for NATO “when the relationship is not reciprocal." Referring to the alliance as a "one-sided path” late Thursday, Trump doubled down on his long-argued criticism of allied nations’ defense spending ahead of next week’s planned NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Alongside his Truth Social remarks, Trump posted a chart displaying contributions from NATO members, showing the U.S. vastly outspending its allies. The President had earlier complained that the U.S. “spends more money on NATO than any other country, by far, to protect...

Prince William didn't hesitate when he was asked a question about America's milestone 250th birthday during a surprise appearance on Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce's podcast. "America is turning 250 years this year," Jason said. "Be honest. Are you surprised we made it?" William didn't miss a beat. "There were times," he joked with a laugh. "There were times. Yeah." "But I'd like to think the U.K. and the U.S. would be together for those 250 years...It's a good brotherhood."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggests to a classroom full of youngsters that Donald Trump has been “humiliated” by his war in Iran – and the President cancels deployment of the long-range missile systems around which Germany had planned its defense strategy for the coming decades. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez observes a strict neutrality on Iran, declaring his country’s bases out of bounds – and Trump urges Spain be kicked out of NATO. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hesitates to sacrifice his country’s navy in a war on which he wasn’t consulted – and Trump mocks him in public for...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was planning to head to Brussels last month to deliver what would be a bombshell announcement in a meeting with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s top military chiefs. The U.S., he planned to say, was preparing additional cuts to its forces in Europe that would go beyond the canceled deployment of an armored brigade to Poland and the earlier withdrawal of an infantry brigade from Romania, people familiar with the matter said. But Hegseth’s proposal was nixed after it was shared with Marco Rubio—President Trump’s national-security adviser—and other senior officials, the people said. Instead, Hegseth said...

An anonymous victim of Jeffrey Epstein who has accused President Trump of sexually assaulting her is reportedly living in fear of retaliation.

Exiled Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was on a flight to return home when the plane was abruptly forced to return after Washington allegedly withdrew its support, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been in exile since December, was apparently warned through “intermediaries” that if she pushed forth with her bid to go home to the earthquake-devastated country, she could derail President Donald Trump‘s strategy for Venezuela, according to the outlet. That would add more delays to the country’s elections, sources told the paper. Machado made the $35,000 trip last week...

Donald Trump has exposed a weak link in American democracy. It is dependent, as the Founders would put it, on its leaders having a modicum of good character. Benjamin Franklin warned that without strict character requirements, government roles would attract “the bold and the violent,” rather than the wise and peaceful. Trump’s new financial disclosure forms, released Tuesday, provide only the latest confirmation that the President and his family has gotten richer while he has served as president, stemming from a set of actions that have been brazen, if not illegal. This Trump family buckraking, as revealed in the new...

Embedded video of "CNBS Exclusive" interview with Trump. US President Donald Trump gave an interview to CNBC on Thursday, in which he commented on the situation vis-a-vis Iran and stated that Iran has agreed to “just about everything we need". “We were in Afghanistan for like 10 years. We were in the Korean War forever. We were in, I don't even mention World War I and World War II, they're biggies, but you know what, stuff like this could have led to it. But we were in many, many years in every war," Trump said. “I've been [in Iran] for...

I thought I had missed something major in my reporting. Turns out I had stumbled into an AI-fueled feedback loop that involved a real LLC’s fictional website and a search engine that’s thrusting unreliable answers on users. Last month, my colleagues and I published an investigation into a Texas oil refinery startup, America First Refining, that had secretly gotten investment from Donald Trump Jr. We discovered a saga involving the Trump administration’s tariff policy, sanctioned Russian oil and an Indian billionaire family’s private zoo. At the center of the story was the CEO of the refinery company, Texas businessman John...

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) is considering moving its military bases’ operational systems in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia to Israel in order to increase their distance from further Iranian missile and drone attacks, The Wall Street Journal reported last Thursday. The US Navy may revamp its base in Bahrain, which has suffered severe damage since late February up until the recent US-Iran ceasefire. Bahrain has been home to the US Navy’s central forces in the Middle East for over 50 years. One option is to establish a new base in the Negev big enough to hold the American...

Trump just posted this. I’m howling

Todd Blanche to target tourists and migrants despite such births accounting for less than 1% of US babies born yearly gle A day after the US supreme court upheld the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, has said federal prosecutors and law enforcement officers will focus on combating so-called “birth tourism” – the process of tourists, temporary visitors and undocumented immigrants traveling to the US and giving birth. “There’s other things that [the Department if Homeland Security] can do, and the federal government can do in the visa process, and the application process, to try...

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pressed President Trump earlier to cripple Iran. But as Iran asserted its power, the prince urged a cease-fire, and is now pursuing his security priorities.President Trump and his military commanders were in a bind.They had announced the start of a new mission to help guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran had effectively closed early in the war. U.S. naval and air power would ward off any Iranian attacks during a tentative cease-fire, the commanders said.But U.S. Central Command was caught by surprise when officials from Saudi Arabia said American forces could...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio appear to be staking out differing approaches to carrying out President Donald Trump’s national security agenda as the possible 2028 presidential rivals jostle for position in a divided Republican Party.With vastly different backgrounds and policy experience, they have moved along separate paths to stake out territory: Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants with a long history in the Senate and major interest in Latin America, and Vance, a child of the Midwest and Marine Corps veteran who served in the Senate for only two years before being...

Air Force Major Jason Watson was arrested on the Capitol Steps Wednesday after taking part in a protest that called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Watson, an active member of the Air Force, delivered a speech ahead of his arrest. He listed several perceived crimes committed by the president and vice president. "Our Constitution binds us all together as Americans. Like countless veterans before me, military members serving now, I've devoted my life in service to our Democratic Republic," Watson said. "Always doing my best to honor my oath and protect America against...