Free Republic

The battle between Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) and the GOP’s right flank is heating up, with hard-line House conservatives throwing their support behind his primary opponent after the moderate Republican called two of them “scumbags” on national television. Gonzales kicked the hornet’s nest over the weekend when, during an interview on CNN, he went after Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Bob Good (R-Va.) — “it’s my absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags” — launching personal attacks on the conservative duo. “Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with them at drug parties....

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) suggested Wednesday that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) should have less access to President Trump as the conflict with Iran persists. “I absolutely think he should have his Oval Office credentials revoked,” Cammack told Migrant Insider’s Pablo Manríquez as she departed the Capitol. Graham, a staunch foreign policy hawk who has openly supported the U.S. military operation in the Middle East, is a frequent guest at the White House and often travels with Trump. On Monday, he and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) met with the president and newly minted Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin — before the...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday he has encouraged President Trump to “wind down” the Iran war and “wind up” efforts for a peace deal while noting that it would take an agreement from both parties to resolve the conflict in the Middle East. “Keep it up Mr President. Wind down the war and wind up efforts for an historic peace deal,” Graham wrote in a post on social platform X, responding to Trump’s Truth Social post touting “serious discussions” with what Trump described as a new and more reasonable regime in Iran. Graham has recently come under criticism for...

Russia has quietly become Iran’s most consequential external partner. Public reporting shows Moscow feeding Tehran real time satellite imagery of U.S. and Israeli positions — a simple but powerful boost to Iranian targeting and battle damage assessment. Russia has also helped upgrade Iran’s Shahed drones with better navigation and communications systems. These aren’t glamorous contributions, but they matter: they force the United States to burn multimillion dollar interceptors on cheap, disposable threats. None of this changes the balance of power. But it absolutely changes the tempo of the war. China’s support looks different — quieter, but just as important. Beijing...

President Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. war in Iran has been won, but that he coudn’t say exactly when it would end. “I think we’re going to end it. I can’t tell you for sure. You know, I don’t like to say this, this war has been won. The only one that likes to keep it going is the fake news,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office following the swearing in of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Trump has repeatedly given contrasting signals about the war, at one moment suggesting talks are taking place that could lead...

Conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly said Monday that it was becoming increasingly clear that the Trump administration will not be able to change the Iranian regime as a result of its war. “It is becoming apparent to the Trump administration that they are not going to be able to change the regime, unless you throw 10,000 ground troops into Iran, which is never going to happen,” O’Reilly told NewsNation’s Leland Vittert on “On Balance.” “So, the thinking is, we’ll make a deal, the deal will encompass inspectors going in to see that they aren’t enriching uranium, no ballistic missiles and bunch...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said that overthrowing Iran’s regime will require a “ground component” along with a revolution, as the U.S.-Israeli conflict with the Middle Eastern country nears the start of its fourth week. “It is often said that you can’t win –– you can’t do revolutions from the air, that is true,” Netanyahu said in a press conference in Jerusalem. “You can’t do it only from there, you can do a lot of things from the air and we’re doing –– but there has to be a ground component, as well. “There are many possibilities for...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) late Tuesday said President Trump has “no reason” to invade Tehran but urged the president to “take” Kharg Island to cripple the Iranian regime’s economy. “No, we’re not going to evade Iran,” Graham told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “There’s no reason to, we’re going to destroy their ability to hurt us, have a nuclear weapon, build missiles to hit America and terrorize the region.” “Kharg Island — 90 percent of their income comes from oil and gas revenue,” he continued, adding that “100 percent of that revenue generating capabilities on a single island, Mr. President, take...

There is no institution that has lost more trust among the American people since 2020 than our judicial system. This is not surprising. The legitimacy of the court depends upon it being seen as non-partisan arbiters of the law, and ever fewer Americans see them as such. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) started this when he allowed only 28 percent of President Obama’s nominees to be confirmed in the final two years of his presidency — and that was before his double standard with respect to the Supreme Court nominations of Merrick Garland and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

A super PAC backing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) for Senate is airing television ads in Palm Beach, Fla., where President Trump is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, as his endorsement in a competitive primary runoff hangs in the balance. Lone Star Liberty PAC came out with a new television ad on Friday that accuses Paxton’s opponent, Rep. John Cornyn (R-Texas), of having “betrayed” Trump, citing his votes to confirm Merrick Garland as U.S. attorney general and Lisa Monaco as deputy attorney general in 2021. “John Cornyn betrayed President Trump, and he doesn’t deserve our trust” the...

President Trump on Friday said he knows the U.S. military operation in Iran will come to an end when he can “feel it in my bones,” a remark that comes almost two weeks after joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on the Middle Eastern country began. Trump spoke with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on his podcast “The Brian Kilmeade Show” and told him, “When it’s over –– and I don’t think it’s going to be long –– when it’s over, this is going to bounce back so fast.” “When are you going to know when it’s over?” Kilmeade asked. “When...

Conventional military thought, derived from the writings of Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, dictates that one identify the enemy’s center of gravity, then “concentrate all energy against it.” For the Islamic Republic of Iran, it center of gravity — “the source of power that provides moral or physical strength, freedom of action, or will to act” — is its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, whose principal mission is to keep the regime in power. While the U.S. and Israeli militaries have systematically dismantled Iran’s conventional military and nuclear ambitions — the direct threat to them — they have left the...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday floated the idea of passing a sweeping spending package aimed at targeting what he described as fraud, waste and abuse in Democratic-led states. Johnson said during a news conference at the House Republican retreat in Doral that he’s been a “champion for reconciliation as one of the important tools in the toolbox.” “I think that we can come together and envision a Venn diagram as I do — what are those handful of issues that are in the center of those concentric circles that is something that every Republican can agree on, that is...

President Trump on Tuesday quipped about Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney becoming the “future Governor of Canada,” reviving an insult previously hurled at his predecessor Justin Trudeau over the president’s push for America’s northern neighbor to become the 51st state. “I’m working with Governor Gretchen Whitmer [D-Mich.] on trying to save The Great Lakes from the rather violent and destructive Asian Carp, which is rapidly taking over Lake Michigan, and all of the beautiful surrounds,” Trump wrote in his Tuesday Truth Social post.

Every few years, Washington rediscovers fraud. A viral clip of someone misusing food stamps. A headline about child care providers in Minnesota. A politician promising to crack down on “fraud and abuse.” The ritual is familiar. And the response is always the same: more paperwork, more surveillance, more hoops to jump through for people who are already struggling.

President Trump said Sunday that increasing prices of oil are “a very small price to pay” for “safety and peace” amid the U.S. conflict with Iran. “Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace,” Trump said in a Sunday evening Truth Social post. “ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” he added. The U.S. conflict in Iran caused a recent surge in domestic oil and gas prices, with the U.S. national average for a gallon of regular gasoline...

Trump is growing increasingly upset that some of his choices for judicial posts remain stalled and on Monday vowed to take legal action against the longtime Senate custom, which allows senators to block district court judge and U.S. attorney nominees from their home states. And the president has increasingly trained his fire on Grassley, who is tasked with shepherding Trump’s judicial picks through the Senate and has steadfastly stood behind the practice. Trump’s latest salvo grated on GOP senators who were already frustrated with the president’s attacks on Grassley, the longest-serving senator of the current Congress who has been a...

President Trump said late Monday the U.S. has “virtually unlimited” munitions to fight wars “forever,” just days after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes in Iran. “The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better — As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.“Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!),” he continued. “At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where...

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Sunday said President Trump could attempt to use a national emergency declaration to cancel midterm elections. Greene said she could “see it” happening in a post on the social platform X made in response to a post from radio host Shannon Joy.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen is turning down an offer from President Trump, who has openly sought to acquire the island from Denmark, to send a Navy hospital ship to his country. “It’s going to be a no thank you from here,” Nielsen wrote on Facebook. “President Trump’s idea to send an American hospital ship here to Greenland is noted. But we have a public health system where treatment is free for citizens. It’s a deliberate choice. And a basic part of our society. It’s not like that in the United States, where it costs money to go to the...