Free Republic

A hallmark of President Donald Trump’s second term is that he’s not just promoting his own policies — he’s looking to shake up the American power structure from top to bottom. Step by step, he is undermining or destroying the left’s decades-old program to achieve total dominance of government and politics through its control of money and institutions. That’s what Trump is up to with his plan to move much of the federal bureaucracy out of the Washington, DC, area and into the rest of the country. In doing so, he’s infuriating federal bureaucrats leading cushy lives in DC and...

The other day, a friend told me a story. They have two cats, and one is a mouser; the other used to be. The two cats play, one increasingly settles. Like people, cats can grow older, tired, and settle. Life encourages us to settle, urges us to let things slip a bit, then a bit more, our physical, emotional, and spiritual health, our long-term dreams and hopes, in favor of easier returns, socially approved reference points, dreamlessness, suppressed regrets, shortcuts to wealth. Don’t settle. The media, and modern politics, are among the most insidious, consistently distracting, and ultimately corrosive influences...

A chaotic rollout of tariffs is starting to filter through to price tags on store shelves. An immigration crackdown is beginning to weigh on jobs growth, measured by federal surveys. Taken together, the impact of President Trump’s whirlwind six months back in office is showing up in the economy. The effect isn’t yet enough to derail the economy, which by many measures has weathered Trump’s trade wars much better than many on Wall Street and in Washington feared. Economists see less risk of a recession now than three months ago, a Wall Street Journal survey found. Yet a long stretch...

At the National Institutes of Health, six directors — from institutes focused on infectious disease, child health, nursing research and the human genome — are leaving or being forced out. At the Federal Aviation Administration, nearly a dozen top leaders, including the chief air traffic officer, are retiring early. And at the Treasury Department, more than 200 experienced managers and highly skilled technical experts who help run the government’s financial systems chose to accept the Trump administration’s resignation offer earlier this year, according to a staffer and documents obtained by The Washington Post. Across the federal government, a push for...

The new regime in Damascus, under President Ahmad al-Sharaa, does not rule out the possibility of transferring to Israel the remains of Israeli spy Eli Cohen, Lebanon's Al-Akhbar newspaper reported Friday morning, quoting Arab diplomats. Cohen was hanged in Syria in 1965. In an article written by the paper’s editor, Ibrahim al-Amin, it was claimed that intensive security talks have recently been taking place between Israel and Syria. The author noted that Damascus has expressed a willingness to reveal the burial sites of Israeli soldiers who went missing in Syria during the First Lebanon War in 1982. .....

Leah covered yesterday how United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer avowed to secure the country’s borders. “A one nation experiment in open borders, conducted on a country that voted for control,” Starmer said on Monday. “Well, no more. Today, this Labour government is shutting down the lab. The experiment is over. We will deliver what you asked for time and again, and we will take back control of our borders” "Every area of the immigration system — work, family, and study — will be tightened up so we have more control,’’ Starmer said. “We will create a system that is...

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has launched a new employment program as the nation braces for thousands to return home amid America’s deportation campaign. BBVA Research believes there are around 4.1 Mexican nationals illegally residing in the US, accounting for around 37% of the total undocumented population. Sheinbaum’s new proposal has been met with much criticism by the Mexican people, as they believe the government abandoned rural areas long ago. The Conexión Empresarial Paisano platform is listing 63,880 new job openings through 220 companies across all 32 states. The current plan is to provide 50,000 of these new openings to people...

PARIS, April 27 (Reuters) - The French government will propose combining or eliminating a third of government agencies by the end of the year in a bid to save money, the public accounts minister said on Sunday. "We will, by the end of the year, propose in the budget that a third of state-backed agencies and operators that are not universities are merged or eliminated," Amelie de Montchalin, the public accounts minister, said in an interview with French broadcaster CNews/Europe 1.

Judge Joseph Molina Flynn of the Rhode Island municipal court has resigned following an FBI raid on his law office. The raid is part of a broader federal investigation into immigration-related activities, coinciding with new executive orders aimed at increasing deportations. Molina Flynn, known for being the first openly gay and formerly undocumented judge in Rhode Island, has been a vocal advocate for immigrant rights.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum immediately responded to President Donald Trump’s implementation of tariffs on Monday by vowing to post 10,000 troops along its shared northern border with the United States. In return, Trump agreed to delay tariffs for a month while he finalizes an agreement on security and trade with Sheinbaum. The agreement came after the two leaders spoke earlier about Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico. “We put tariffs on, they owe us a lot of money, and I’m sure they’re going to pay,” Trump told reporters of Mexico Sunday night. After Monday’s conversation, Sheinbaum posted on...

@amuse GERMANY: AfD leader Alice Weidel has taken a bold, Trumpian stance, vowing that within 100 days of taking office, she will seal Germany’s borders, slash asylum seeker subsidies, and initiate an unprecedented mass remigration effort.

The atmosphere on The View turned tense on Monday morning as Democratic Senator John Fetterman made an appearance that left the show’s liberal hosts visibly uncomfortable—with Ana Navarro gripping her coffee mug just a little tighter than usual. Indeed, the Pennsylvania lawmaker’s candid remarks about his recent Mar-a-Lago visit sparked immediate pushback from the panel. But it wasn’t Fetterman’s presence alone that caused the stir. Instead, it was what he revealed about his private meeting with President Donald Trump that sent shockwaves through the studio (and viewers reaching for their popcorn). “I think overall it was a positive experience,” Fetterman...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday described American President Donald Trump as "pragmatic" and "smart," expressing doubt that the US president would lower global oil prices to harm Russia. Putin noted that extremely high or low oil prices would negatively affect both the Russian and American economies. "He is not only a smart person, but a pragmatic person," Putin told state media. "I have a hard time imagining there will be decisions taken that are detrimental to the American economy," he added. Putin also said that the 2022 "crisis in Ukraine"—a reference to Moscow's full-scale military offensive—might have been avoided...

well the Trump effect has been instant for me our sales rep has been bombarding me yesterday and today with new PO's to process and order. I was a zombie last week watching youtube much of the day and now i'm overloaded and have to ask my colleague for assistance which has never happened except for emergency or vacation perhaps we're trying to get our orders from Mexico and China (which are many of them) into the US before tariffs get enacted (right now only a few items we bring in from China are subject to tariff)

Donald Trump has been president for three days and one of the big automakers, Stellantis, is already announcing the reopening of a plant in Illinois which will make new Durango trucks in Detroit. This is not a coincidence. This is what happens when the United States has a leader who cares about American jobs and building products in America. This is also a reminder of why so many American union members backed Trump in the 2024 election, even though union leaders backed Kamala Harris. Do you think this plant would be reopening if Harris had won? Yahoo Finance reports: Stellantis...

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨BREAKING: The Biden administration’s CBP One app, which facilitated the transportation of over 1 million illegal immigrants on domestic flights, has been officially shut down. 12:25 PM · Jan 20, 2025

Scores of senior career diplomats are resigning from the State Department effective at noon on Monday after receiving instructions to do so from President-elect Donald Trump’s aides, said three U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The forced departures, aimed at establishing a decisive break from the Biden administration, will see an exodus of decorated veterans of the Foreign Service, including John Bass, the undersecretary for management and acting under secretary for political affairs, and Geoff Pyatt, the assistant secretary for energy resources, said the officials, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel decisions ahead of...

President-elect Donald Trump said he will act with “historic speed and strength” to fix the country’s problems as soon as he takes office Monday. “We have to do it. We’re not going to have a country left,” Mr. Trump said during his Victory Rally on Sunday at the Capital One Arena in Washington. “Before even taking office, you are already seeing results that nobody expected to see,” he said, adding that the changes are being called “the Trump effect.” “Since the election the stock market has surged and small business optimism has soared a record 41 points to a 39-year...

It's real. A ceasefire/hostage deal reportedly has been reached between Israel and Hamas. Israel and Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire deal that also ensures the release of hostages, Fox News has confirmed."A Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal was reached following the Qatari Prime Minister's meeting with Hamas negotiators, and separately Israeli negotiators in his office," a source briefed on the matter told Fox News. Separately, a senior Hamas official confirmed to Fox News that a deal was reached. In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that final details were still unresolved, but that it hoped...

...The withdrawal comes after the Biden administration recently approved the California Air Resources Board’s mandate phasing out new gas-powered cars by 2035, but had not yet approved waivers for four other standards for diesel vehicles that the state adopted....