Free Republic

The world is getting more uptight about lending money to President Donald Trump’s government — causing interest rates to climb in ways that are worsening affordability pressures, hampering economic growth and creating a new risk for Republicans in November’s midterm elections. The energy price spike triggered by the Iran war has seeped into the price of bonds that help fund the U.S. government. Interest rates on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note are topping 4.44%, up from 3.95% before the war started at the end of February. Average mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels in nine months, while auto...

President Trump likes his military and diplomatic victories quick, clean and decisive. (snip) But now, Mr. Trump has hit the stalemate phase of his presidency. The war with Iran is clearly at that stage. When he declared a cease-fire on April 7, Mr. Trump said on social media that the end of combat operations would be conditional on “the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.” It wasn’t. Even if commerce now resumes across the strait under a memorandum of understanding still under negotiation, it will still leave the future of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs exactly...

The Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing criminal investigations into Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime target of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to current and former U.S. law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House and the oil-rich nation. It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated Rodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A Justice Department spokesperson said in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.” But DEA records obtained by The Associated Press earlier this...

The negotiations between the United States and Iran to end their war are following President Trump’s familiar playbook for resolving a Middle East crisis: agree to a cease-fire and deal with the toughest problems later. Analysts say the approach has had mixed results in the Gaza Strip, where Mr. Trump brokered a truce last year between Israel and Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group. Plans for a so-called Phase 2 agreement — under which Hamas was to lay down its arms and Israel would allow Gaza to be rebuilt after a devastating war — have stalled. A similar approach in U.S....

The social media post by President Trump made it sound straightforward. The United States would orchestrate a deal to end the war with Iran and, in exchange, a slew of countries across the Middle East and South Asia would join an agreement, called the Abraham Accords, establishing relations with Israel. In fact, he said, that “should be mandatory.” But half of the countries he named — such as Egypt, Jordan and Turkey — already have relations with Israel. And the other half — including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan — have no interest in establishing them anytime soon. As a...

Indivisible, the leading anti-Donald Trump group attempting to sabotage his America First agenda, has, to date, claimed to be “non-violent,” but a recent planning call indicated that may not last forever. “Back up and think about what your objectives are for these rallies, and I thought of ‘non-violence first,” Kara Kelly told a “No Kings Best Practices Share-Out” virtual call on March 6.

'I believe that this administration, in less than 30 days, is in the midst of a massive collapse and particularly a collapse in public opinion,' Carville said. 'What I have said very publicly is that Democrats need to play possum. This whole thing is collapsing. 'It doesn't need Elizabeth Warren and somebody screaming to pacify some progressive advocacy groups in Washington, which, by the way, I wish these people were just useless. They're actually worse than useless, that they're detrimental.' He advised Democrats to lay low while the White House falls apart and predicted Republicans will find it difficult to...

CNN - Donald Trump believes presidents have almost absolute power. In his second term, there will be few political or legal restraints to check him. The president-elect’s sweeping victory over Vice President Kamala Harris suddenly turned the theoretical notion that he will indulge his autocratic instincts into a genuine possibility. When Trump returns to the White House in January as one of the most powerful presidents in history, he’ll be able to take advantage of his own filleting of guardrails during his first presidency, which he continued through legal maneuverings out of office. It’s not guaranteed that just because Trump...

President-elect Donald Trump fired back at Meryl Streep Monday morning after the actress denounced his campaign rhetoric during a speech at the Golden Globe Awards Sunday night. Streep ripped Trump for his obvious mockery of a journalist's physical disability in late 2015, and Trump responded by once again denying that he meant to make fun of the reporter's condition. [SNIP] As I've written before, Trump's defense simply isn't believable. Kovaleski, who covered Trump long before the real estate mogul entered politics, has said that "Donald and I were on a first-name basis for years." Trump was undoubtedly aware of Kovaleski's...

The national field director for Donald J. Trump’s campaign — who is a loyalist to Corey Lewandowski, the embattled campaign manager — resigned in a letter to Mr. Trump on Monday afternoon. “I want to express my deepest gratitude for the opportunity to serve you and your campaign over the past 7 months,” Stuart Jolly, the director, wrote in his resignation letter. “The journey has been extraordinary and many experiences on this journey will never be forgotten.” Mr. Jolly, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, was especially loyal to Mr. Lewandowski, whom he had worked with previously at Americans For Prosperity,...

No-one doubts that Cruz, a former national college debating champion, is exceptionally bright. Most exceptionally bright people cannot resist the temptation to wing it, simply because they can. Not so Cruz. He combines high intelligence with enormous discipline and capacity for work. Betsy McCaughey, a former Republican Lieutenant-Governor of New York, observes that self-discipline of this kind bespeaks humility: he is smart enough to know that even smart people can make big mistakes, and that hard work is the best insurance against missteps. Humility is not a personality trait one immediately associates with a politician who has opposed virtually all...