Free Republic

Financial markets finished the week on a high note after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stood his ground against President Trump in a rare joint appearance by the two men Thursday. The S&P 500 finished 0.4 percent up, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 208 points or 0.47 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained about a quarter of percent to close above 21,108. ... Friday’s gains followed a confrontation between Trump and Powell on Thursday in which Powell repelled an attack from Trump — this time not on social media but on television. The exchange took place at...

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld cheered Hunter Biden after the former president’s son went on a profanity-laced tirade, tearing into members of the Democratic establishment who he says undermined and mistreated his father toward the end of his presidency. “But Democrats, if you listen to him … what have Democrats been trying to do? All six months. Try to be authentic. They try to fake swear, do a lot of theater. That’s real swearing,” Gutfeld said after watching the interview Biden gave to YouTube personality Andrew Callaghan. “You gotta give it to him. That guy is authentic, he’s the real...

Public uproar and internal fighting in the Trump administration over the handling of documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein has put a spotlight on FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and his importance to members of President Trump’s base. Bongino has been at the center of debate over the Epstein files after the Justice Department essentially closed the case in a joint memo with the FBI. The deputy FBI director has clashed with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the issue and reportedly weighed resigning. The outrage on the right over the prospect of Bongino exiting underscored both his importance to...

The battle over the Jeffrey Epstein files that’s severed the MAGA faithful is also surfacing on Capitol Hill, where GOP lawmakers are torn over President Trump’s refusal to release government records related to the deceased financier and sex offender. The debate is fracturing the House GOP conference, with hardline conservatives — ardent MAGA allies — echoing the base’s demands to make the documents public, while other Republicans are joining Trump’s calls to “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stunned Washington on Tuesday when — after initially deferring to the...

For a while now, I’ve been trying to figure out who Zohran Mamdani reminds me of. Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, just won the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City, running on a platform that would make Karl Marx beam with pride Was it Fidel Castro he brought to mind — the socialist-turned-communist who transformed Cuba’s once-bustling economy into a cautionary tale? Or maybe Hugo Chávez — the man whose brand of socialism sent Venezuela’s economy off a cliff? SNIP And then it hit me: Zohran Mamdani reminds me of President Trump. Yes, that Trump — the same one...

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday he believes a client list associated with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein once existed but was “destroyed” by the Biden administration. “I think the files existed at one time,” Burchett said in an interview on NewsNation’s “On Balance” with host Leland Vittert. “I think they were destroyed in the previous administration.” The Justice Department (DOJ) released a memo earlier this week concluding that Epstein did not keep such a list that was allegedly used to blackmail high-profile individuals — contradicting conspiracy theories circulating for years that suggested otherwise.

Republican senators aren’t happy about how President Trump treated Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), whom the president blasted last week on social media after Tillis said he wouldn’t vote for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Tillis is highly regarded among colleagues as a team player focused on getting results, and many Republicans thought he would have had the best chance of keeping the North Carolina Senate seat in GOP hands.

President Trump said Monday his administration would send Ukraine additional weapons after his administration imposed a pause on some shipments to Kyiv. “We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now,” Trump told reporters during a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Defensive weapons, primarily, but they’re getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess,” he added. The Pentagon last week confirmed a decision to halt the delivery of some air defense missiles and munitions to Ukraine, citing concerns...

Elon Musk is threatening to primary Republicans who voted for President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” posing a challenge for the president and his allies as they look to defy midterm headwinds. Musk vowed earlier this week that Republicans who supported Trump’s megabill “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth” as the Tesla CEO has reignited his feud with Trump in recent days. Republicans see the comments as unhelpful, with some saying if the threats come to fruition, it could risk diverting resources away in an election environment that historically hasn’t...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has reportedly apologized to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani over saying he had referred to “global jihad” in the past. A readout that Politico obtained said Mamdani and Gillibrand talked Monday night on a call amid voting on President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” “Gillibrand apologized for mischaracterizing Mamdani’s record and for her tone on the call,” stated the readout, according to Politico. When reached for comment, Gillibrand’s office directed The Hill to a post on the social platform X by CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere that seemed to feature a screenshot of the readout. During...

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Sunday said Zohran Mamdani, the winner of New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, must prepare to “aggressively address the rise in antisemitism in the city of New York.” During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Jeffries criticized Mamdani’s use of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which fueled his detractors’ accusations of antisemitism. “Globalizing the intifada by way of example is not an acceptable phrasing,” Jeffries said. “He’s going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward.”

President Trump’s feud with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is showing no signs of abating as the president seeks to oust the GOP congressman for his history of regularly breaking with the administration. Massie recently opposed the administration by denouncing its strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and refusing to support the president’s legislative agenda, leading Trump’s political operation to launch a targeted campaign against Massie. On Friday, a Trump-aligned super PAC, led by the president’s co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita, rolled out its first ad as part of a $1 million ad buy targeting Massie. The 30-second ad — titled “What happened...

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) questioned first lady Melania Trump’s reported “Einstein visa” at a House hearing Wednesday. “Let me remind y’all that Melania, the first lady, a model — and when I say model, I’m not talking about Tyra Banks, Cindy Crawford or Naomi Campbell level — applied for and was given an EB-1 visa, and what that stands for is an Einstein visa. Now y’all that don’t know, let me tell you how you receive an Einstein visa,” Crockett said “You’re supposed to have some sort of significant achievement, like being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize or a Pulitzer,...

Former White House aide and commentator Steve Bannon ripped into Fox News host Mark Levin this week as the two continue to trade barbs over the U.S. military’s involvement in the war between Israel and Iran. “Boy, Tel Aviv Levin’s big mad,” Bannon said during an episode of his popular “War Room” podcast. “He’s big mad as a spokesmodel for a foreign nation that didn’t get them what they want.” The MAGA firebrand was referring to a social media post by Levin earlier this week that called Bannon “a disgusting fraud” over his time serving as a top aide to...

President Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “couldn’t have been nicer” during their one-on-one meeting Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit at The Hague. Trump said at a press conference that the two leaders did not discuss details of a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war, but stressed their shared desire to end the war swiftly. “No, no, I just — I wanted to know how he’s doing,” Trump told the reporter. “It was very nice, actually. We had a little rough times. He couldn’t have been nicer. I think he’d like to see an end to this, I...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday took aim at the recent U.S. strikes on Iran, calling them a “completely unprovoked act of aggression.” “You are visiting Russia during a challenging period, marked by a significant escalation of tensions both in the region and surrounding your country,” Putin told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to an English transcript from the Kremlin. “Russia’s position on the current developments is well known. It has been clearly expressed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is reflected in the stance we’ve taken at the United Nations Security Council, with which you are already...

The Senate parliamentarian has rejected several more provisions in the Republican megabill to enact President Trump’s agenda, including language authorizing states to conduct border security and immigration enforcement, which traditionally have been duties of the federal government. Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough also ruled against language in the bill that would increase the Federal Employees Retirement Systems contribution rate for new civil servants if they do not agree to give up civil service protections to become at-will employees. Additionally, the parliamentarian advised against a section of the bill that would allow the executive branch to reorganize federal government agencies — or eliminate...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in a Sunday morning interview pushed back on claims that President Trump acted outside his Constitutional authority by ordering strikes on Iran. “No, he was within his Article II authority,” Graham said in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” when asked if Trump violated the U.S. Constitution by “acting unilaterally.” “Congress can declare war or cut off funding,” Graham continued. “We can’t be the commander in chief. You can’t have 535 commander in chiefs.” “If you don’t like what the president does, in terms of war, you can cut off the funding. But declaring...

Rep. Sean Casten (D-Il.) said late Saturday that President Trump’s move to bomb Iranian nuclear sites without congressional approval amounts to an “unambiguous impeachable offense.” “This is not about the merits of Iran’s nuclear program,” Casten said in a post on the social platform X. “No president has the authority to bomb another country that does not pose an imminent threat to the US without the approval of Congress. This is an unambiguous impeachable offense.”

<p>Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has been advocating for the U.S. to avoid intervention in the Israel-Iran conflict, wrote on X minutes after Trump announced the offensive: “This is not Constitutional.” Massie helped lead a bipartisan war powers resolution to prohibit U.S. involvement in the Middle East dispute.</p>