Free Republic

We tend to think of United States presidential elections as a strictly American affair, as they are supposed to be. But the whole world is watching every four years, with global leaders from both our allies and our adversaries gaming out what their relationships and fortunes might look like depending on the winner. This year is no exception, and one of those leaders keeping a close eye on the race is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He allowed his mask of neutrality to slip a bit during a recent interview with the BBC when he told them that he was "preparing...

It shows a remarkable level of confidence from Donald Trump that he’s chosen for his running-mate the man who once called him “America’s Hitler.” J.D. Vance, the thirty-one-year-old junior senator from Ohio, made the private comment in 2016, as he rose to fame off the back of his autobiography Hillbilly Elegy. The book recounts what it was like to grow up in a deprived rust-belt town, where his family and neighbors had “no college degree” and “poverty’s the family tradition.” Vance escaped by joining the US Marine Corps, which included a tour in Iraq. Once home, his degrees from Ohio...

Neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden is the other guy. This, we are frequently reminded, is their principal advantage in the eyes of many. It may be the only advantage Biden has left after decomposing in real time on the debate stage. Ironically, though, not being each other is one of the few important things these two men have in common. In 2024, a sizable portion of the electorate — maybe the majority — will vote not for a presidential candidate but against his opponent. It’s enough to make you wonder whether the whole affair is an apotropaic exercise, a...

Spencer is Associate Director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project at The Heritage Foundation. When conservatives do finally make it into an administration, they often don’t know what to do or how to seize the gears of power effectively. KEY TAKEAWAYS It’s past time to lay the groundwork for a White House more friendly to the right. The policy book Mandate for Leadership represents the work of more than 350 leading conservatives and outlines a vision of conservative success. The usual suspects in the permanent political class will be ready for the next conservative administration. Will we be ready for...

Amazon Prime Video said any similarities to real-world events were purely coincidental. Amazon Prime Video has added a disclaimer to "The Boys" season finale condemning political violence following the assassination attempt against former President Trump. "The season finale of 'The Boys' contains scenes of fictional political violence, which some viewers may find disturbing, especially in light of the injuries and tragic loss of life sustained during the assassination attempt on former President Trump," the disclaimer begins. Prime Video noted that the newest season of the violent, superhero satire was filmed in 2023 and any similarities to real-world events are "coincidental...

I am careful about my words. I don’t throw around accusations, and, for the legal record, I am not here making an accusation. This essay is deliberately written so as to not be an act of defamation or of libel.

MILWAUKEE, WI — With the excitement of the 2024 Republican National Convention still in the air, conservative attendees in Milwaukee and nationwide were thrilled to hear the news that former President Donald Trump was now selling official $250 golden ear bandages. The new product was made available by the Trump campaign to conventiongoers this week, with the initial production run of the high-dollar golden ear bandage quickly selling out. A campaign spokesperson said the item was initially going to be a limited edition, but discussions were taking place about producing more due to high demand......

[snip] To be fair, some people who watched the speech thought that the first 10 minutes or so, in which Trump recounted being injured, were good, even thoughtful. I thought they were terrible; although Trump and his people have emphasized Trump’s defiance in the moment after he was hurt, his blow-by-blow account of the incident came across to me as creepy and solipsistic rather than brave. Contrast that with Ronald Reagan, the previous president injured in an attempt on his life. Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post reminded us today that Reagan appeared before Congress a month after he was...

No longer a Bellarmine employee’ Bellarmine University Professor John James is out of work after appearing to joke about the failed assassination attempt against President Donald Trump. “If you’re gonna shoot, man, don’t miss,” the English professor wrote on Instagram after last Saturday’s shooting that took off part of the president’s ear during a rally in Pennsylvania. The Catholic university in Louisville announced soon after that James would be placed on “unpaid leave,” although the social media post did not name him. “Words and actions that condone violence are unacceptable and contrary to our values, which call for respecting the...

An Instagram video posted by The Typical Liberal and DC Draino, posits a theory that explains the trajectories of the bullets fired at President Trump a week ago today.

Best AI video to date. - Elon Musk

Republican national convention described as ‘the happiest place on Earth’ as Democrats fight and Biden gets CovidThey browsed Trump bobbleheads, Trump mugs (“Make coffee great again!”) and Trump T-shirts, including a new line celebrating his defiance of an assassin’s bullet. They lined up at food stalls for beef sticks, gourmet popcorn, Puerto Rican roasted chicken and the local speciality, fried cheese curds. Beer was flowing, the sun was shining and Republicans were experiencing something they had not felt for a long time: joy. This year’s Republican national convention in Milwaukee had the swagger of a party that believes it is...

No one wants their geographic region to be associated with a deadly disease. Unfortunately, this has happened in the past with diseases such as “German measles,” “Spanish flu” and “Asiatic cholera.” It happens today, too, even though the World Health Organization advises against naming pathogens for places to “minimize unnecessary negative effects on nations, economies and people.” By Feb. 11, 2020, the WHO had announced that the official name for the novel coronavirus just starting its spread around the world would be severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 – or SARS-CoV-2. The illness it caused would be called COVID-19, short...

One often-repeated part of the official story is that a Butler County Sheriff’s Deputy climbed on top of the roof moments prior to the shooting to confront alleged shooter Thomas Crooks, and Crooks responded by pointing a weapon at the Deputy, who then fell off of an eight-foot ladder Later reports claim that the deputy hurt his ankle and is now walking with a medical boot. Here’s the New York Post repeating that story nationally. Key witness Greg Smith exclusively told the Gateway Pundit: “I saw him [the sniper] right before he shots happened, and I didn’t see him turn...

During the speech, co-host Sunny Hostin accused the former president of being xenophobic due to his remarks about immigration and his reference to the Covid-19 virus as the "China virus." She also took issue with Trump's repeated jabs at his political opponents throughout the speech. The speech felt "performative" instead of unifying, and it was "beneath the dignity of a national convention from the nominee of a major party," Hostin said. "It was a xenophobic, ugly vision of America speech," she continued.

-snip- Having talked to Donald Trump this week, I am more convinced than ever that he has the strength and the bravery to fix it, to save Ukraine, to bring peace — and to stop the disastrous contagion of conflict. -snip- The Ukrainians have shown they can and will win. Even today, they are pushing Putin back again in the Kharkiv region, and they are exacting a huge toll on the Russians in Donetsk. Their heroism is incredible. But the war has been going on too long, and the cost is immense, in lives, in economic misery and instability. I...

President Trump recently floated the idea of eliminating the federal income tax. That tax became a fixture in 1913 when Congress ratified the 16th Amendment. The first U.S. Tax Code was about 400 pages. Today, with everything included, it’s more than 70,000 pages! Initially, the income tax was 1% on all incomes above $3,000 ($95,000 in today’s dollars) and applied to only 3% of the population. Today, the graduated rates start at 10% for families earning more than $30,000 and go up to 37% for families earning above $609,000. The rates vary greatly: The top 1% of taxpayers pay 45%...

34% of Democratic voters found it either definitely or probably credible that Trump staged Saturday's shooting, with only 45% of Democrats saying the conspiracy theory is not plausible...' It was recently revealed that one-third of Democratic voters believe a conspiracy theory that the attempt to murder Donald Trump on July 13, 2024, was staged by Trump himself. A Morning Consult poll released on July 15, 2024, showed that one in three registered Democrats believe it is “credible” that the July 13, 2024, shooting in Butler, Pa., was staged and not intended to kill Trump. According to the poll, large...