Free Republic

President Donald Trump convened his Cabinet in person on Thursday to deliver a message: You’re in charge of your departments, not Elon Musk. According to two administration officials, Trump told top members of his administration that Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy. Musk was also in the room. The meeting followed a series of mass firings and threats to government workers from the billionaire Tesla founder, who helms the Department of Government Efficiency, that created broad uncertainty across the federal government and its workforce. DOGE’s actions have...

EXCLUSIVE: Can J.D. Vance Help Save the Catholic Church?One Catholic vice president has all but destroyed the Church, now it’s time for another Catholic vice president to save it.A little over 10 years ago, Vice President Joe Biden became the point man to solve the crisis of thousands upon thousands of parentless children illegally entering America along its Southern Border. Over the spring and summer of 2014, over 60,000 unaccompanied minors—some as young as four—came across the Mexican border. Most of them were boys, 13 to 17. There were girls too. It was the cartels who brought them. The crimes...

A Massachusetts woman who told police that she went to the U.S. Capitol to kill members of President Donald Trump's cabinet said she was influenced by Luigi Mangione, the man charged with fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, prosecutors said in a court filing. Ryan Michael English, who goes by Riley English, was arrested Monday and remained in custody after her initial court appearance on Thursday. English didn't immediately challenge her pretrial detention, court records show. English, 24, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, told police that she felt like she was “on a mission” and “had been thinking about for this...

President-elect Trump announced Friday that Matthew Lohmeier will serve as the under secretary of the Air Force. “Matt is a former fighter pilot, and Space Force Squadron Commander, who has devoted his life to serving our Great Nation,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “He is a proud graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy.” In 2021, Lohmeier was fired from the Space Force, where he served as a lieutenant colonel, after criticizing the U.S. military on a conservative podcast. Lohmeier joined “The Steve Gruber Show” to discuss his book “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking...

President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet is one of the most ideologically diverse in U.S. history, a mix of conflicting worldviews and varied backgrounds that will bring a range of perspectives to his MAGA agenda.If Mr. Trump’s nominees are confirmed, Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose family is American Democratic royalty, will work alongside Vice President J.D. Vance, who was born into poverty with a drug-addicted mother. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was heavily criticized for her record on LGBTQ issues as South Dakota governor, will attend Cabinet meetings with openly gay Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.Mr. Kennedy’s...

VIDEOA Brentwood neighbor of Kamala Harris was delirious with joy on Election Day. Why? Because he spotted a Bluebird sitting in a tree across the street from her house and he was absolutely certain it was an omen that she would be victorious. So was he embarrassed by placing all his faith in the Bluebird of Happiness? Nope! Because a month later he was making Trump cabinet predictions that were hilarious in the absolute certainty of his prognostication powers. Apparently he forgot all about the Bluebird. But guess what? The DUmmie FUnnies won't be forgetting so if you see a...

There is a general theme visible, one of a large scale, perhaps described as unity; perhaps described as healing; perhaps described as a new era in Americanism. The Trump Doctrine (which few really understand) in combination with the cabinet assembly, is a great indicator of what lies ahead. What President Ronald Reagan was to Generation X, President Donald Trump hopes to be for Generation Z; you can see it in everything he does. A transformative figure that changes the way the American people view and interact with government, with his own unique and modern twist on it. In essence, what...

None

Donald Trump’s second administration has begun to take shape amid fears over extremist appointments and how far right the US will go while Republicans control the White House and probably both chambers of Congress. The range of names being put forward varies from members of Trump’s inner circle to the world’s richest man, tech mogul Elon Musk. Alongside plutocrats and technocrats are hardline ideologues on immigration and foreign policy and the controversial figure of Robert F Kennedy Jr, a leading vaccine conspiracy theorist. On Thursday, Trump made his first appointment, naming Susie Wiles, a co-campaign chair, White House chief of...

Former President Donald Trump is assembling his policy team with familiar faces from his first term and signaling they would have roles in his potential 2025 Republican presidential administration. Trump and his allies have been meeting and talking by phone for months, sculpting the policies that will define his second term should he win the presidency in 2024. The names of the inner circle were revealed Friday in the latest effort by the Trump campaign to counter outside conservative organizations' efforts to vet and staff a future 2025 administration. Among these aides are former trade representative Robert Lighthizer, former White...

The Social Contract is broken. The Bragg-Daniels attack on Donald Trump is the quintessential modern act of PC stupidity’s destruction of a society. If it succeeds. But yet again, President Trump’s vicious enemies have under-estimated and misread the master campaigner they seek to destroy. The man is a builder. From way back. And now his astonishing creativity has the chance to build the single best thing to Make America truly Great Again. A broad-based coalition for freedom. These are some of the people I believe President Trump should invite now to agree to be part of his next administration from...

With an increased awareness of how some U.S. politicians appear to be reacting to the COVID-19 challenges; and with a new American perspective toward the way media outlets, some businesses and many politicians appear to be influenced by China; it’s worth revisiting a recent speech by Secretary of State Pompeo that might have been overlooked. Pompeo’s remarks were made to the National Governors Association (NGA) Feb 8, 2020; and there’s an interesting segment where Pompeo reveals his awareness of a list of U.S. governors compiled by China’s communist party; and their alignment with China’s interests. A transcript of the key...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suspended its enforcement of a variety of environmental laws on Thursday, saying that industries could have trouble complying with them due to the coronavirus pandemic. The agency added that it won't expect "to seek penalties for noncompliance with routine monitoring and reporting obligations." "EPA is committed to protecting human health and the environment, but recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements," said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. "This temporary policy is designed to provide enforcement discretion...

Appearing Friday on CNBC, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Trump administration could provide temporary student loan suspensions to help Americans amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Attorney General William Barr has told people close to him he’s considering quitting over President Trump's tweets about Justice Department cases, an administration official says.

The Justice Department pushed back Tuesday night at multiple reports claiming Attorney General William Barr told people close to him he’s considering stepping down over President Trump’s tweets, days after Barr admitted that Trump’s tweeting made it “impossible for me to do my job.” “Addressing Beltway rumors: The Attorney General has no plans to resign,” DOJ spokeswoman Kerri Kupec tweeted. Barr “has his limits,” one person familiar with Barr’s thinking told The Washington Post. Its report suggested that Barr wanted Trump to “get the message” to stop weighing in publicly in ongoing criminal cases. An administration official gave a similar...

“Person of the Year” is high praise indeed. TIME has given the honor to the teenage climate activist, Greta Thunberg, for beginning “a global movement by skipping school.” Perhaps more gallingly, TIME named “the public servants” as their “guardians of the year.” In particular, Marie Yovanovitch, Bill Taylor, Fiona Hill, and Alex Vindman—four of the bureaucrats who testified against President Trump in the impeachment hearings—as individuals who had the courage to “follow the law.” While these four might have “followed the law” by testifying under subpoena, the broad-based effort to impeach President Trump based on a phone call with Ukrainian...

The era of secret science at EPA is coming to an end,” Pruitt said when announcing the rule. “The ability to test, authenticate, and reproduce scientific findings is vital for the integrity of the rule-making process. Americans deserve to assess the legitimacy of the science underpinning EPA decisions that may impact their lives.”

Abortion activists are not happy with the new leader of the Food and Drug Administration. Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that Brett Giroir will serve as the acting FDA commissioner until the Trump administration’s nominee is confirmed, the pro-abortion site Rewire reports. Former FDA commissioner Dr. Ned Sharpless recently returned to his role as director of the National Cancer Institute. Giroir, who, until recently, served as the assistant secretary for health under HHS, has been involved in the defunding of the Planned Parenthood abortion chain and the effort to stop taxpayer dollars from paying...

House Democrats are grilling a stream of disgruntled career diplomats in a basement hearing room of the Capitol. The hearings are supposed to be secret, but Democrats leak snippets of the testimony daily. They are hoping it will add up to a case for impeaching President Trump. So far, all the testimony actually proves is these State Department diplomats think they, not Trump, ought to be running foreign policy. Never mind impeachment. The most pressing constitutional issue is who decides the nation’s foreign policy, the president or the permanent bureaucracy. House Democrats are accusing Trump of offering Ukrainian President Volodymyr...