Free Republic

All members of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board resigned Wednesday, citing alleged political interference by members of the Trump administration. In a statement posted to Substack, the dozen former board members said they “voted overwhelmingly” to resign “rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and mandates Congress established for the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago.” snip The prestigious program — which awards a select group of scholars and academics the opportunity to continue research abroad each year — is managed by the State...

TheHill.com trending: Live Updates: Trump Newsom Trump Tariffs Trump Immunity National Monuments sponsored: Content from Raft Content from Eli Lilly Technology Gabbard: AI used to decide continued JFK files’ classification by Miranda Nazzaro - 06/11/25 10:34 AM ET Unmute Fullscreen Pause NOW PLAYING The Hill's Headlines — June 11, 2025 Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the Trump administration used artificial intelligence (AI) to help determine which documents related to the assassination of former President Kennedy should remain classified. Gabbard, speaking at an Amazon Web Services conference Tuesday, touted how the agency fed tens of thousands of pages of...

“He can’t be as honest and candid as he was with me when he didn’t have Donald Trump as his boss,” Massie said. “He’s got his job is to sell this bill, and he’s trying to put lipstick on a pig, and Rand Paul and I are pointing out it’s a pig.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is using President Trump’s legislative agenda to “secretly explode” the Pentagon’s budget by adding $150 billion in military spending onto the national debt. “This bill is going to spend $300 billion in the first two years … $300 billion on military and border,” Paul, a critic of the House-passed version of the GOP mega bill, told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow in an interview on Wednesday. Paul said the spending cuts in the bill amount to $1.5 trillion over 10 years or about $150 billion per year. “In the first year...

President Trump on Wednesday doubled down on calls to scrap the nation’s debt ceiling, pressing for bipartisan action to abolish it and finding common ground with Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.). “I am very pleased to announce that, after all of these years, I agree with Senator Elizabeth Warren on SOMETHING. The Debt Limit should be entirely scrapped to prevent an Economic catastrophe. It is too devastating to be put in the hands of political people that may want to use it despite the horrendous effect it could have on our Country and, indirectly, even the World. As to Senator...

Republican lawmakers are breathing a sigh of relief that the courts are putting the brakes on President Trump’s trade war, which has pummeled markets, created economic uncertainty and taken a bite out of Trump’s approval ratings. It’s unclear who will win the final legal battle, which could end up in the Supreme Court. But Republicans for now are mostly hoping Trump takes a political win in the form of judicial decisions that could hold back his trade war or even put the tariffs on ice. “I’m sure that Republican senators are secretly rooting for the Supreme Court to uphold the...

CV NEWS FEED // A day after CatholicVote reported that The Hill had published a column identifying a flag of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as “a symbol associated with the Christian right wing, specifically used to protest Pride,” the publication erased that claim from the column without noting the change. The practice of editing out controversial passages without acknowledging the correction in an editorial note is commonly known as “stealth-editing.”Nick Robertson originally wrote in his column: “The Sacred Heart of Jesus flag is a symbol associated with the Christian right wing, specifically used to protest Pride.”As of mid-afternoon the...

The fiscal impact of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which one prominent budget hawk called a “debt bomb,” is becoming a significant political concern among Republican lawmakers who have made little progress toward offsetting the $3 trillion projected cost of the legislation. Some GOP senators fear that the bill’s failure to rein in federal spending in a substantial way over the next decade is fueling jitters in the bond market, where soft demand for U.S. debt has caused yields to climb in recent weeks. And they worry that if Republicans pass Trump’s bill on party-line votes in both chambers, they...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that there’s a “new sheriff in town” and that the Senate is prepared to act regardless of the next steps the Russian leader chooses to take. In a pair of X posts and in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Tuesday, Graham said Putin’s dramatic escalation in military strikes over the weekend and his two-hour phone call with President Trump last week reflect the “same ol’, same ol’ from Putin’s Russia.” “Escalate to de-escalate,” Graham said in a post on X, naming Putin’s first strategy, before naming Putin’s second: “Drag it...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) immediately announced his opposition to the House-passed bill Thursday, vowing to vote against it unless Senate Republican leaders remove a provision to raise the federal debt limit by $4 trillion over the next two years. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), an outspoken fiscal hawk, said Thursday that there are four Senate Republican conservatives who will vote against the House bill as currently drafted, which would be enough to sink the bill if there is full attendance. Johnson said: “I think I’ve got at least four right now that this is not going anywhere.”

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) says former aides who voiced their concerns about his mental health have a “bizarre grudge” against him. Fetterman, who was hospitalized in 2023 for clinical depression, nine months after he suffered a stroke, says he’s doing well and plans to serve out the rest of his Senate term, despite a warning from his former chief of staff that he’s acting erratically and could pose a danger to himself. “For me, it’s like in the ‘Goodfellas’: everyone takes a beating sometimes,” he told video journalist Nicholas Ballasy when asked about allegations of erratic behavior made by...

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) filed a Wednesday resolution to expel Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) over pending federal charges related to a scuffle involving lawmakers, protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers outside a migrant detention facility in New Jersey. McIver was accused of assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement after touring Delaney Hall on May 9 to conduct legal oversight. She has said she did nothing wrong while accusing ICE officers of pushing her. Democrats have defended McIver while accusing the Trump administration of a political prosecution, while Mace joined other Republicans who have widely criticized her actions.

…However, no president has pushed fossil fuels more aggressively or at greater cost than President Trump. He has imposed an energy policy that denies the addiction’s real costs, ranging from lung cancers to deadly weather disasters. All the while, America’s future — in fact, the world’s — depends on replacing “all of the above” with the “best of the above.” Many of the best options are market-ready today, and much less expensive than fossil fuels, especially when we compare their real costs and benefits to those of oil, natural gas and coal. America’s most secure and prosperous future will be...

President Trump has returned from the Middle East to mounting questions about whether it’s appropriate for him to accept a luxury Qatari jet to serve as the next Air Force One, including from Republicans increasingly dubious that the move is a smart and worthwhile idea. Republicans have given the president a wide berth on a multitude of issues throughout his first four months in office as they push to enact his agenda. However, very few are rushing to his defense after he made clear he plans to accept the $400 million gift. “It’s an unnecessary distraction,” one Senate Republican told...

President Trump has displayed growing frustration with the Supreme Court as justices have stymied his approach to carrying out his agenda, particularly on immigration, since his White House return in January. “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” the president exclaimed Friday in one of multiple Truth Social posts penned after the court ruled 7-2 to temporarily block the administration’s efforts to deport migrants with alleged ties to Venezuelan gangs largely over a technical issue. “This is a bad and dangerous day for America!” he wrote in another post that also accused Supreme Court...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said this week that she has not gotten a response from the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the potential investigation into her over a migrant webinar she held in February. “I asked them; they haven’t responded to me, but, you know, once again, I’m fully using the First Amendment to inform people of their constitutional rights. They say a lot of things, but I’ve written a formal letter, and they won’t respond,” Ocasio-Cortez told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. She set the deadline for the DOJ to respond by March 5. The New York Democrat said...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he asked President Trump during their meeting Tuesday to stop calling his neighbors to the north the 51st state, insisting the president will not get his “wish.” In a press conference at the Canadian Embassy following his meeting at the White House, a reporter asked Carney if he pushed Trump to stop calling Canada the 51st state because it offends Canadians, and the new prime minister responded “yes.” “Today,” he said of when he pushed back on Trump’s 51st state remark, and added “exactly what you just said” when pressed for specifics on the...

Former Vice President Kamala Harris will jab at President Trump in the keynote address at the Emerge gala on Wednesday, making her first public remarks since leaving office in January, a source told The Hill. In her remarks, the former vice president, who lost to Trump in November, is expected to offer pointed criticism of the administration, the source said. Harris is also expected to honor the organization for its role empowering women in politics and issue a call to action to combat Trump’s economic policies and his push to overhaul the federal government. Emerge, which is celebrating its 20th...

House Democrats are diving back into GOP districts to conduct town halls during the long spring recess, escalating an unusual tactic they’re hoping will help them win over battleground voters. The gambit — aimed at districts held by Republicans facing tough reelection contests — was initiated after House GOP leaders advised Republican lawmakers not to meet face-to-face with voters in large, public forums amid the outcry over President Trump’s efforts to remake Washington. In March, a handful of Democrats ventured into GOP districts to stage town halls put on by grassroots activists and local party affiliates. They’ve expanded the effort...

Sen. John Cornyn has long been a reliable conservative in Congress. But that may not be enough to get the Texas Republican reelected... The Cornyn-Paxton primary fight is a "proxy war" in the GOP, said Axios. "Top MAGA luminaries" are skeptical of Cornyn because of his pro-Ukraine stance and work on a bipartisan gun bill after the 2022 Uvalde school massacre. The senator is the "epitome of the establishment," said Steve Bannon, an ally of President Donald Trump, to Axios. Paxton, meanwhile, carries a reputation as a "pro-Donald Trump knife fighter," said Axios. His candidacy is a "warning shot," said...