Free Republic

The world is getting more uptight about lending money to President Donald Trump’s government — causing interest rates to climb in ways that are worsening affordability pressures, hampering economic growth and creating a new risk for Republicans in November’s midterm elections. The energy price spike triggered by the Iran war has seeped into the price of bonds that help fund the U.S. government. Interest rates on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note are topping 4.44%, up from 3.95% before the war started at the end of February. Average mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels in nine months, while auto...

President Trump likes his military and diplomatic victories quick, clean and decisive. (snip) But now, Mr. Trump has hit the stalemate phase of his presidency. The war with Iran is clearly at that stage. When he declared a cease-fire on April 7, Mr. Trump said on social media that the end of combat operations would be conditional on “the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.” It wasn’t. Even if commerce now resumes across the strait under a memorandum of understanding still under negotiation, it will still leave the future of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs exactly...

The Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing criminal investigations into Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime target of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to current and former U.S. law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House and the oil-rich nation. It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated Rodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A Justice Department spokesperson said in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.” But DEA records obtained by The Associated Press earlier this...

The negotiations between the United States and Iran to end their war are following President Trump’s familiar playbook for resolving a Middle East crisis: agree to a cease-fire and deal with the toughest problems later. Analysts say the approach has had mixed results in the Gaza Strip, where Mr. Trump brokered a truce last year between Israel and Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group. Plans for a so-called Phase 2 agreement — under which Hamas was to lay down its arms and Israel would allow Gaza to be rebuilt after a devastating war — have stalled. A similar approach in U.S....

The social media post by President Trump made it sound straightforward. The United States would orchestrate a deal to end the war with Iran and, in exchange, a slew of countries across the Middle East and South Asia would join an agreement, called the Abraham Accords, establishing relations with Israel. In fact, he said, that “should be mandatory.” But half of the countries he named — such as Egypt, Jordan and Turkey — already have relations with Israel. And the other half — including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan — have no interest in establishing them anytime soon. As a...

Throughout Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, repeated and escalating warnings of the potential for a wider war have only raised fears in the Baltic states that they could be next in the crosshairs of the Kremlin. Talk about a potential Russian invasion is "very common at parties, gatherings, lunch breaks, water cooler talk," Gabija Stasiukyne, a 32-year-old living in Vilnius, told the Kyiv Independent. "It’s everywhere. The conversation inevitably turns in the direction of — what are you going to do?" Lithuania's government is also taking the threat seriously — the country reinstated conscription in 2015, and Vilnius in January...

Canada has ordered 88 F-35A fighters for $14.5 billion, and now they are really discussing whether the Pentagon can press a special button and turn all those aircraft into scrap metal if necessary The fear of being left unarmed and defenseless against armed aggression is exactly what the Trumpists have sown among their allies with their latest actions. Canadians, who have repeatedly heard threats from Donald Trump about the "51st U.S. state" and face the tariff war unleashed by Washington, have become anxious about their security. So, Canadian expert circles have expressed concerns about the ongoing acquisition of American F-35...

Fox News host Pete Hegseth on Friday blasted the left's immediate criticism of the airstrike ordered by President Trump that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq. “Shame on them. It’s disgusting the amount of hatred they have for this president. Their inability to step back for one moment and realize the world is a better place when a terrorist like Soleimani is dead," said Hegseth, a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, on “Fox & Friends.” Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., called on members of Congress late Thursday to join her in putting a stop to President Trump from...

Bordering on Nuts My one big wish for the coming New Year of 2019: That the mainstream and social media, Hollywood stars and members of the no-talent Entertainment Industry and publicity hound Democrats would lose their Glenn Beck free ride Cheetos Moment and get on with their lives without gaining ratings from their wall-to-wall mocking of President Donald J. Trump. It was on April 29, 2016 that Beck, who got his start in public life as a stand-up comedian, smothered his face in Cheetos dust “to look like Donald Trump” (The Verge, April 29, 2016)

For my sins, I was looking online at the Opinion page of the New York Times this morning. Here’s a sampling of column headlines going back to February, reflecting the paper’s obsessive Trump-hatred: The Conspiracy Theory That Says Trump Is a Genius The True Damage of Trump’s ‘Fake News’ The Art of the Flail Will We Stop Trump Before It’s Too Late? Trump’s Approach to Syria Is No Way to Run a War Trump, Driven by Fear Trump’s Irrational Border Plan How to Serve a Deranged Tyrant, Stoically Will Trump Crash the Farm Economy? The Trump Administration Sabotages the Census...

Trump hatred drives ratings. But journalists, having stooped so low as to be indistinguishable from third-rate, hostile, buffoonish comedians like Maher and Colbert The anti-Trump venom from the mainstream media has become so virulent that broadcasters and reporters alike risk becoming little more than extensions of the late-night “comedic” lineup, bashing the President without regard for truth or factual accuracy. And above all, most of these journalists realize, and sometimes admit, that they want to help the Democrats win the next election. The comparison between late night show hosts and the news media becomes stark when one compares Joy Reid’s...