Free Republic

Sub-Headline: With Twitter as his Excalibur, the president takes on his doubters, powered by long spells of cable news and a dozen Diet Cokes. But if Mr. Trump has yet to bend the presidency to his will, he is at least wrestling it to a draw.

WASHINGTON — One lazy, sultry afternoon in 1947, two years after America helped trounce the Nazis, my father arrived at our family’s modest summer house on the Severn River near the Naval Academy. He had come from his job as a police detective in D.C., still wearing his suit and his service revolver. “Get your shoes on and come with me,” he told my 10-year-old brother, Martin, his Irish lilt edged with a steel that caused his son to scramble. “I have something to do and I want you to see it.” The town, Herald Harbor, Md., had its share...

Expanding their attacks, many longtime critics of President Trump are accusing him of “moral failure.” Their claim is that his remarks following the Charlottesville, Va., mayhem failed to sufficiently condemn neo-Nazis and KKK wannabes. While I believe Trump is being unfairly accused of praising white supremacists, he is certainly guilty of a fool’s errand in trying to draw fine distinctions among those on the right in the aftermath of the death of Heather Heyer. His disjointed, off-the-cuff delivery in a rowdy press conference in the lobby of Trump Tower compounded the impossible and gave license to those inclined to see...

President Trump woke up angry on Friday. By 9:30 a.m. Eastern, he’d already tweeted seven times, railing against the media and the investigation into possible ties between his campaign and Russian interests. In one tweet, he defended his deputy press secretary for having offered an explanation for the firing of FBI director James B. Comey that Trump himself later contradicted. As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017 Trump went on to say that, since the...

The American middle classes, the Chinese, and Vladimir Putin have never been convinced that Ivy League degrees, vast Washington experience, and cultural sophistication necessarily translate into national wisdom. Trump instead relies more on instinct and operates from cunning — and we will soon see whether we should redefine “wisdom.”

The only news here is that the more than 20-year-old alleged tax document was illegally obtained, a further demonstration that the New York Times, like establishment media in general, is an extension of the Clinton Campaign, the Democratic Party and their global special interests. What is happening now with the FBI and DOJ on Hillary Clinton's emails and illegal server, including her many lies and her lies to Congress are worse than what took place in the administration of Richard Nixon - and far more illegal.

NEW YORK—All over America IKEA futons are groaning with the restless insomnia of journalists—tossing, turning, cursing the impotence of their melatonin capsules—burdened with the future of the Republic. Long nights of torment, and then . . . Morning resolve! Before they’ve even microwaved their second Jimmy Dean Sausage Sandwich, they know that this will be the day of reckoning. They will fire up the Kia Sedona and take the long way to work, giving them more time to think about the epic 1,500 words that will make the difference between chaos and civilization. Yes, they tell their wives, It’s time...

Did Donald Trump violate IRS rules, by using a charity's money to buy himself a signed football helmet? Four years ago, at a charity fundraiser in Palm Beach, Donald Trump got into a bidding war at the evening's live auction. The items up for sale: A Denver Broncos helmet, autographed by then-star quarterback Tim Tebow, and a Tebow jersey. Trump won, eventually, with a bid of $12,000. Afterward, he posed with the helmet. His purchase made gossip-column news: a flourish of generosity, by a mogul with money to burn. "The Donald giveth, and The Donald payeth," wrote the Palm Beach...

Why Donald Trump should be President. In December 2014, Peter Economy of Inc. magazine wrote, “The Top 10 Skills Every Great Leader Needs to Succeed.” Trump has them all. 1. Inspires and motivates others. My favorite example is Jim Herman, who at 38 won his first PGA tournament on April 3, 2016. Herman tried for years to make the PGA but gave up on his dreams a decade ago, and settled in as an assistant pro at Trump National in Bedminster, New Jersey. “I got into a nice conversation with Donald, Mr. Trump, one day. He’s like, ‘Why are you...

The voice is instantly familiar; the tone, confident, even cocky; the cadence, distinctly Trumpian. The man on the phone vigorously defending Donald Trump says he’s a media spokesman named John Miller, but then he says, “I’m sort of new here,” and “I’m somebody that he knows and I think somebody that he trusts and likes” and even “I’m going to do this a little, part-time, and then, yeah, go on with my life.” A recording obtained by The Washington Post captures what New York reporters and editors who covered Trump’s early career experienced in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s: calls...

You could see this aspect of Trumpism—I’m about America, end of story—in his much-discussed foreign-policy speech this week. I have found pretty much everything said about it to be true. It was long, occasionally awkward-sounding and sometimes contradictory. It was interesting nonetheless. He was trying to blend into a coherent whole what he’s previously said when popping off on the hustings. He was trying to establish that there’s a theme to the pudding. He was also trying to reassure potential supporters that he is actually serious, that he does have a foreign-policy framework as opposed to just a grab bag...

Richard Haass, Head of Council on Foreign Relations via targetliberty.com Richard Haass, Head of Council on Foreign Relations via targetliberty.com Many Trump enthusiasts cite Heidi Cruz’s stint with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she advocated for the private sector, as an indication that presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz is a “globalist.” If Heidi Cruz’s connection to the CFR makes Ted Cruz a globalist (despite Cruz’s extensive record of aggressively defending U.S. sovereignty), any thinking Trump supporter would also want to take into account presidential candidate Donald Trump’s repeated and vocal admiration for CFR President Richard Haass. During the...

Many Trump enthusiasts cite Heidi Cruz’s stint with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she advocated for the private sector, as an indication that presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz is a “globalist.” If Heidi Cruz’s connection to the CFR makes Ted Cruz a globalist (despite Cruz’s extensive record of aggressively defending U.S. sovereignty), any thinking Trump supporter would also want to take into account presidential candidate Donald Trump’s repeated and vocal admiration for CFR President Richard Haass. During the GOP debate in Detroit on March 3, Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Donald Trump for “two or three names”...

He's talking about running the country, but Donald Trump's record on voting in elections, or rather the lack of it, is coming under fire. The New York City Board of Elections says Mr Trump did not vote in any primary elections for 21 years. The registered Republican, who has been touting himself as a prospective presidential candidate, would first need to get GOP voters to nominate him in a primary - a process in which official records show Trump repeatedly failed to participate in. Mr Trump became a Democrat in 2001, and documents show he ignored that party's primaries as...

Of his many outrageous campaign statements, perhaps Donald J. Trump's most important ones concern his hoped-for role as president of the United States. When told that uniformed personnel would disobey his unlawful order as president to torture prisoners and kill civilians, Trump menacingly replied "They won't refuse. They're not going to refuse, believe me." Responding to criticism by the speaker of the House, Trump spoke like a Mafia don: "Paul Ryan, I don't know him well, but I'm sure I'm going to get along great with him. And if I don't? He's gonna have to pay a big price." ......

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s new hire Paul Manafort, who recently joined the campaign to help organize delegate and convention strategy, will be heading Trump’s Washington, D.C. office. Manafort, who has worked for 40 years as a lobbyist and political consultant, hasn’t lived full-time in Washington D.C. for years, according to the Washington Post. He instead travels between Alexandria, Virginia; Florida; and New York, where he has an apartment in Trump Tower. “But despite his low inside-the-Beltway profile, no one underestimates Manafort as a formidable opponent who is unafraid to go to the mat for controversial, polarizing clients,” the Post reports....

“[Donald] Trump’s second-place finish to Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Republican primary may represent no ordinary setback,” write the Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty, Jose A. DelReal and Robert Costa. “It appears to be a pivot point—although it has yet to be seen whether the trajectory from here points downward or upward.” ~snip~ The last time he faced the prospect of venturing into hostile territory—when his rally in Chicago was overrun by left-wing disruptors—he ended up bugging out. If he fails to secure a majority of delegates, perhaps rather than endure defeat in Cleveland he will find a way...

On Tuesday evening, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) blew out 2016 Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in Wisconsin. As of 10:30 PM ET, Cruz had won well over 50 percent of the vote. Trump is expected to win just six of 42 delegates. This came within hours of the Trump campaign declaring the possibility of a big comeback in Wisconsin. So, what does all of this mean? Here are six takeaways: Trump Does Indeed Have A Ceiling. The field has consolidated, but Trump isn’t walking away with huge margins of victory. In fact, in the three states since the field winnowed...

After several high profile incidents involving Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the candidate continued to stand by his man, insisting that he was in the right and wasn’t going anywhere. And true to his word, Lewandowski was not fired, remaining by his side at events and on the campaign plane. But in the days which followed, according to some sources, Corey may be on the scene but his role is slowly diminishing as others take over key duties. (Politico) In public, Donald Trump is standing behind embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as he faces battery charges for grabbing a reporter....

It was also thanks to some information he had gathered that Trump was able to do something that no other Republican has done before: take on Fox News. An odd bit of coincidence had given him a card to play against Fox founder Roger Ailes. In 2014, I published a biography of Ailes, which upset the famously paranoid executive. Several months before it landed in stores, Ailes fired his longtime PR adviser Brian Lewis, accusing him of being a source. During Lewis’s severance negotiations, Lewis hired Judd Burstein, a powerhouse litigator, and claimed he had “bombs” that would destroy Ailes...