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...

Hamas’s unprecedented invasion of Israel would in “no way” have transpired under the presidency of Donald Trump, according to world-renowned military historian and professor Dr. Victor Davis Hanson, who also argued that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine and China would not have sent spy balloons over the U.S., as he urged America to take back its international standing. Speaking on former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia John Anderson’s “Conversations” podcast Wednesday, Dr. Hanson suggested that “to his credit,” former President Donald Trump demonstrated American deterrence and determination through his assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and destruction of...

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday promised to carry out “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” in the pattern of the Eisenhower model, making the vow during a speech in Dubuque, Iowa.Trump delivered remarks on securing the border and stopping illegal immigration in the country.“One of the most important issues in this campaign is ending the nation-wrecking catastrophe on our southern border,” Trump’s prepared remarks read.“Under my leadership, we had the most secure border in U.S. history. Now, we have the worst border in the history of the world,” they continue, deeming the current immigration crisis as an...

Former President Donald J. Trump laid out 42 policy proposals at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) summit Tuesday, where he gave his first speech in Washington, DC, since leaving office. Prepared remarks circulated by the Trump team show the 45th president’s proposals on an array of topics, including the Second Amendment, border security, education, energy, and election integrity, but a central focus of his policy proposal addresses law and order. The prepared remarks first emphasized the importance of supporting police departments throughout the country and fostering a culture that respects law enforcement. “We have to give our police back...

Disagreements between democracies play into the hands of unelected and unaccountable regimes.Bowing to these regimes' unjust and unreasonable demands is a sure-fire recipe for disaster The opening of the American Embassy on 14 May in Israel’s capital—Jerusalem—should be replicated by fellow-democracies France, Germany and The United Kingdom (“the Democratic Trio”) without delay. President Trump’s policy on Jerusalem was set out by him on 6 December 2017 (“the Trump Declaration”):

(New York, NY) – President-elect Donald J. Trump today announced his selection of Stephen Miller to serve as Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the President for Policy. Miller has served as a key advisor to several members of Congress, including U.S. Senator from Alabama Jeff Sessions, and served in senior leadership roles on both the Senate Budget Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee. Miller has been serving as the President-elect’s top advisor on policy since January 2016. As national policy director, he oversaw the entire policy operation, led the policy development and formulation efforts, and directed strategic policy...

On his transition website GreatAgain.gov, the Trump team has laid out the framework of his initial policies with policies focused i) on American Security including as Defense and National security, Immigration Reform and Building That Wall, and Energy Independence; ii) Getting America Back to Work Again including Tax Reform; Regulatory Reform; Trade Reform; Education; Transportation & Infrastructure and Financial Services Reform; and iii) Government for the people including Healthcare Reform (Obamacare), Veterans Administration Reform and Protecting Americans' Constitutional Rights. The key highlights include: overhaul in immigration policies, including "Building that Wall" , the Trump transition team will "execute on the...

WASHINGTON — The eleventh-hour move by the Donald Trump campaign to add a plan to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act to the Republican platform caught GOP lawmakers off guard, with some of them expressing disappointment with the decision. While the 1930s-era law, which separated commercial and investment banking activities, is strongly supported by progressive Democrats, it is not popular among most Republican policymakers. "I was completely surprised," Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview here hours before Trump's formal nomination Tuesday evening. "It was a late addition. I am not sure how...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump outlined economic policy initiatives on Thursday that he would pursue if elected to the White House in November, including refinancing longer-term U.S. debt, lowering taxes and scrapping a slew of federal regulations. The Manhattan real estate mogul said his aim would be to clear the way for U.S. businesses to succeed. "We're lowering taxes very substantially and we're going to be getting rid of a tremendous amount of regulations," Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with CNBC. "The business people they talk about regulation more than they talk about taxes," he said.

WASHINGTON Even with the Republican nomination seemingly locked up, Donald Trump remains radioactive to the party’s top national security strategists, who warn that his “incoherent” approach to world affairs could prove dangerous for the United States. In March, 121 members of the GOP’s national security brain trust signed on to a scathing open letter opposing Trump for president, calling his sense of U.S. influence around the globe “wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle.” This week, in interviews and on social media after Trump’s decisive win in Indiana, more than a dozen of those signatories reiterated that stance, leaving Trump with...

Under federal law, the executive branch is expressly required to take religion into account in determining who is granted asylum. Under the provision governing asylum (section 1158 of Title 8, U.S. Code), an alien applying for admission must establish that ... religion... was or will be at least one central reason for persecuting the applicant. Moreover, to qualify for asylum in the United States, the applicant must be a 'refugee' as defined by federal law. That definition (set forth in Section 1101(a)(42)(A) of Title , U.S. Code) also requires the executive branch to take account of the alien's religion: The...

Donald Trump had it right on Vladimir Putin and ISIS; Chris Christie didn't have a clue By Paul Mulshine | The Star Ledger on November 17, 2015 at 7:46 AM, updated November 17, 2015 at 10:28 AM Chris Christie reacted to those terror attacks in Paris on Friday by trying to turn them to his political advantage at a campaign event in Florida on Saturday. "The world is desperate for a strong, secure, smart and tested American president," Christie said. "The hour is too late for people to be trained. We need a president who is ready to serve." We...

Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz joined the chorus of Republican governors vowing to defy the Obama administration’s plan to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States in the wake of last deadly terror attacks in Paris. "We have no documentation on these people," Trump said at a campaign rally in Knoxville, Tenn., Monday night. "And I said — you probably saw a couple weeks ago — I'm looking at this migration, it's a terrible thing — I have a tremendous heart, I want to take care of people — you look at this migration, I said to...

In the days since Friday's horrific attacks in Paris—the most deadly act of terrorism on European soil in more than a decade—something approaching a consensus has emerged among politicos, pundits, and the political press corps in Washington: The fear-inducing violence in France could bring order to what has been a chaotic Republican presidential campaign here at home. The New York Times reports that the attacks have "thrust national security to the heart of the presidential race, forcing candidates to scramble and possibly prompting voters to reconsider their flirtations with unconventional candidates." Bloomberg Politics calls it "an important gut-check moment for...

As the hunt for the perpetrators of the attacks in Paris continue, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Monday that he is uniquely qualified to be commander-in-chief because he has an "instinct" for sensing threats. "In my book I predicted terrorism. Because I can feel it," said Trump, speaking to thousands of supporters packed into Tennessee's Knoxville Convention Center. "I can feel it like I feel a good location."

"Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values," [Obama] said.Six Republican governors have announced that Syrian refugees won't be allowed to resettle in their states in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in Paris. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued statements Sunday saying that they wanted to prioritize the safety of the residents in their states. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a GOP presidential candidate; Arkansas Gov. Gov. Asa Hutchinson; and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence joined them on Monday. "Michigan is a welcoming state and we are...

American military officials have come to the conclusion that the U.S.-led air campaign targeting Syria’s oil infrastructure — which has provided the Islamic State with hundreds of millions of dollars over the past two years — has been too cautious. A new offensive aims to change that. Officials would not say if the rules of engagement for the U.S.-led air war against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, have changed to allow for a new and more aggressive round of strikes. But there was little doubt that the U.S. aerial assault that tore through 116 ISIS oil tankers parked...

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez says she’s opposed to the Obama administration’s plan to accept any more Syrian refugees until there’s a clear plan in place to properly vet and place them. "The Governor strongly opposes the Obama Administration’s plan to accept more Syrian refugees until there is a very clear plan in place to properly vet and place the refugees, and the voices of governors and the public can be heard."