Free Republic

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...

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli is being seen as a likely replacement for outgoing Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan, sources tell Fox News -- a move that would be welcomed by immigration hardliners. President Trump on Friday announced that McAleenan would be leaving the job to spend more time with his family, and added that the new acting secretary would be announced next week. The announcement immediately led to speculation as to who would step into the vital cabinet position -- one that is a central post for the nation's immigration policy....

President Trump announced Friday night that Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan would step down from his position. “Kevin McAleenan has done an outstanding job as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security. We have worked well together with Border Crossings being way down," tweeted Trump, who tapped McAleenan to lead the department earlier this year. Trump named McAleenan the department’s acting chief in April following Kirstjen Nielsen's resignation. -DEVELOPING "Kevin now, after many years in Government, wants to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector,” Trump tweeted. “Congratulations Kevin, on a job well done!” Trump said...

Protesters forced acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan to end his speech at a recent event in Washington, D.C. On Monday, McAleenan was invited to give remarks and then participate in a discussion session at an annual immigration policy meeting hosted by Georgetown Law. However, protesters kept standing up, holding banners and shouting to prevent the acting secretary from being heard by other attendees.

President Trump announced in a tweet on Wednesday that he will name Robert O’Brien to succeed John Bolton as his national security adviser. “I am pleased to announce that I will name Robert C. O’Brien, currently serving as the very successful Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department, as our new National Security Advisor​,” the president said. “I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!​”​ ​The announcement comes a day after Trump released the five finalists on his list and called O’Brien “fantastic.”

Mystery shrouds the planned visit by President Donald Trump and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to the Bay Area Tuesday. Trump was set to be in the area for a fundraiser at an undisclosed location and Carson's visit was reportedly meant to focus on San Francisco's homelessness problem.

As President Trump begins considering replacements for former national security adviser John Bolton, sources close to the administration say it's possible Trump will make an unusual pick and ask Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to fill the role. The scenario of Pompeo taking the job while keeping his current one has historical precedent in Henry Kissinger, who served in both positions from 1973 to 1975. Holding both jobs would "appeal to anyone with a sense of history," said a Republican operative close to Pompeo. "The Henry Kissinger scenario is one that I can imagine. The president has a great deal...

President Trump fired John Bolton as National Security Advisor Monday evening and made the announcement Tuesday on Twitter. “I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week,” Trump said in a pair of tweets Tuesday. A few minutes later, John Bolton fired off a...

Over the last week or so, Gen. James Mattis has been running around hawking his new book, but it was revealed on Sunday that he's planning to cash in on his government service in a much more swampy way.

Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis took several implicit swipes at President Trump’s leadership in an op-ed published Wednesday, warning about the fallout from fractured alliances and increasing divisiveness under the current administration. Mattis’ comments were included in a lengthy essay adapted from a forthcoming book and published in The Wall Street Journal. They amount to the most extensive remarks from him about his time in the Trump administration since he quietly resigned in January.