Free Republic

President Donald Trump this week enjoyed one of his biggest legislative victories during his second administration. "THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL" has PASSED the House of Representatives!" Trump touted in a social media post Thursday. The president's post came soon after the GOP-controlled House passed Trump's sweeping tax and spending cuts package by a razor-thin margin. The Republican-crafted measure is full of Trump's campaign trail promises and second-term priorities on tax cuts, immigration, defense, energy and the debt limit. Ahead of the House vote, two surveys released earlier in the week indicated that the president's poll numbers remained underwater.

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon leaned into President Trump’s aspirations for a third term, suggesting Trump will run and win in 2028 while denying his own presidential ambitions. “I’m a firm believer that President Trump will run and win again in 2028, so I’ve already endorsed President Trump,” Bannon told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo. “A man like this comes along once every century, if we’re lucky, we’ve got him now.” “He’s on fire, and I’m a huge supporter. Want to see him again in 2028,” he added in an appearance on “CUOMO.” Trump has floated the idea of running for...

The oldest mayor in the United States died on Saturday night at the age of 100 while serving his second term in New Jersey. Tinton Falls Mayor Vito Perillo, born in 1924, served in the US Navy alongside his brother during World War II and worked as a civil engineer through his retirement. Still, he didn’t let age deter him from trying new things — including running for mayor. In 2017, he was elected mayor of Tinton Falls in Monmouth County, NJ at the age of 93. His campaign was fueled by a vigor that made it almost impossible to...

Florida first lady Casey DeSantis is considering running to replace her husband as governor when his final term runs out, according to a report. Donors are pushing her to run because her husband, Gov. Ron DeSantis, cannot seek re-election when his second term ends in 2026, NBC News reported, citing multiple sources. “I would say this: I have heard donors have been urging her to run and that while it’s not something she has wanted to do, they are causing her to at least stop and listen,” a source told the outlet. The prospect — which would make her the...

President Trump’s favorability rating at the start of his second term is significantly higher than it was when he first took office in January 2017, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. In the survey, conducted a few days after Trump was sworn into office, 47 percent of registered voters said they had a favorable opinion of Trump, while 45 percent said they had an unfavorable view of him. Another 8 percent said they either had not heard enough or refused to answer. That’s a marked change from the results of a similar survey conducted a few days after...

While Europe’s politicians learnt their lesson from 2017 and appear to have decided to play nice in public with the incoming President Trump second term, the continent’s legacy media feels no such restraint and morning-of-inauguration coverage is loaded with dire predictions, accusations, and even unfavourable comparisons to dictators. While the top story slots for Europe’s newspapers on Monday morning were reserved for the news and images of the Israel hostage deal, as the morning ground on and the clock counted down to Trump-hour these stories were rapidly displaced with inauguration content, with many publications incapable or unwilling of hiding their...

President Joe Biden’s final report card is in and it doesn’t read well for the departing Democrat. Americans have a darker view of the octogenarian’s tenure than they did at the end of predecessors Donald Trump’s first term or Barack Obama’s second, a poll released Friday finds. Around one-quarter of U.S. adults said Biden was a “good” or “great” president, with less than one in 10 saying he was “great,” according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Tellingly for the Democrat octogenarian, many members of his own party seeing his presidency as underwhelmingly mediocre.

Kay Granger was first elected to Congress nearly 30 years ago. She served as chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee until she stepped down in March of this year. This week, her family admits she has “some dementia issues” and has lived in an assisted-care facility for the last six months. The last time she voted on the House floor was in July, and she has missed over 300 votes since then.The average age of Senators in the incoming Congress will be 64-years-old. In the House (meant to be “the people’s chamber”) the average age is 59. A majority...

Sometimes a win is just a win. And sometimes it’s a game-changer of historic proportions. Donald Trump has done far more than secure a delayed second term. The broad scope of his win and the coalition he formed reshaped the political landscape and flatlined the legacies of a generation of presidential families. The Clintons, the Bushes, the Cheneys, the Obamas and the Biden-Harris team have been eclipsed by his dramatic triumph. Their tenures seem like minor footnotes now that Trump has forged a sweeping realignment under the MAGA banner. He remade the stiff and stuffy GOP into the home of...

Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper (D) said Wednesday that he will run for reelection just once. “I’m only gonna do two terms,” Hickenlooper told Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio. “I’ve said it first here, two-term limit, oath of conscience.” Hickenlooper, the state’s former governor, gained a seat in the upper chamber by way of winning a key race against former Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) in 2020. “There should be more people that are involved in local, municipal politics and governing and state politics and governing, who [get] into the Senate so that they bring those experiences with ‘em,” said Hickenlooper, who has...

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre affirmed that President Biden plans to serve out a full second term if he wins on Nov. 5 and shrugged off concerns about him handling a hypothetical nuclear attack on the country after 8 p.m. Last week during a private meeting with Democratic governors, Biden, 81, informed them that he’s asked his team to refrain from scheduling events after 8 p.m., the Washington Post reported. The president’s apparent curfew became the source of questioning at Tuesday’s White House press briefing. “He also said he’s sharpest before 8 p.m. So, say that the Pentagon at...

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) reupped his support for President Biden’s reelection campaign Friday in the wake of Biden’s poor debate performance this week. “Not only do I know that he will be able to serve another 4 years … I’m excited about what we can actually get done as a state if I have a chance to continue partnering with the president for the next 4 years,” Moore said in an interview Friday evening with NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said Tuesday on ABC’s “The View” that no one will be “safe” from Donald Trump if he wins the presidential election in November. Co-host Joy Behar said, “There has been a lot of talk about Trump seeking retribution if he gets into office for his legal troubles, for his personal troubles, for his hair, whatever. He always has somebody to blame, you know? So you said recently that you thought that you as an outspoken critic, could be a target yourself. Some people think that sounds overdramatic but I’m right there with you. I think that...

Former President Donald Trump’s so-called “threats” should “scare every American,” twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said, asserting that a second Trump term would be like “having a dictator” in the Oval Office. “And the kind of threats that you hear coming out of Donald Trump should scare every American,” Clinton, who lost to Trump in a surprise defeat in 2016, said during a Friday appearance on Democracy Docket’s Defending Democracy podcast, stating that President Biden is “modeling responsible leadership” by “not engaging in vitriolic attacks on people, in rallies and online, not threatening to execute people and putting them in...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell struck an ominous tone about the state of world affairs Monday while promising that he will serve out the remainder of his current term in the upper chamber. McConnell (R-Ky.) didn’t reveal whether he plans to pursue an eighth term in 2026, but told Louisville’s NewsRadio 840 that his chief mission is pushing back against “isolationists” within the GOP. “I’m not leaving the Senate. And I’m particularly involved in fighting back against the isolationist movement,” the 82-year-old said.

About a third of U.S. registered voters surveyed said they think President Biden would finish a second term if reelected, compared to a little more than half of voters who think the same for former President Trump, according to a poll. The CBS News/YouGov survey, published Sunday, found 34 percent of registered voters said they believe Biden would finish a second term, while 44 percent said he would leave office before the end of his second term and 22 percent said they are not sure.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned of the dangers of former President Trump winning a second term in office in an interview published Monday. “Don’t even think of that,” said Pelosi, the former Speaker, when asked about the potential for another Trump administration term, in an interview with New York Magazine. “Don’t think of the world being on fire. It cannot happen, or we will not be the United States of America,” Pelosi said. Trump lost his reelection campaign in 2020 but is now the front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2024. “If he were to be president,” Pelosi added, “it...

Former President Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly said a second term for the ex-president would result in a “nonstop gunfight” with Congress. Kelly was Trump’s second chief of staff and came into the job hoping to instill discipline on the White House. He ended up lasting in the role for nearly a year and a half but had little success in ending the drama and infighting the characterized Trump’s administration. “It would be chaotic,” Kelly said of what a second term might look like in the New York Times opinion piece. “It just simply would be chaotic, because he’d...

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said in a Friday interview he’s “not leaning” toward another term as governor, but he will make a “firm decision” this summer. Sununu, who is in his fourth term, said “I don’t think I’m going to run again” during an interview on “The Greg Hill Show.” “I’ll make a firm decision this summer, not leaning towards it,” Sununu elaborated later. “We just — we’re crushing it in New Hampshire, and I just believe that this isn’t a career, it’s public service.” “Could I win again? Of course, but it’s service and someone else needs...