Free Republic

The Pavlovian Left goes berserk at the mere prospect of each new Trump initiative. Its escalating reactive venom and hysteria are calibrated to the success of Trump's latest policy. Yet the new hard-left Democratic Party offers no counter-agenda to explain its furor. Still less do Democrats attempt bipartisan efforts to craft shared legislation. Take foreign policy. Democratic senators trashed the recent Trump-Putin Alaskan summit as a failure. Then they became depressed when, just days later, an entourage of European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suddenly flew to the White House. The Euros praised Trump for offering some sort of...

Democrats rage at Trump’s every move but offer no real alternative—only fury, obstruction, and failed policies voters have already rejected. The Pavlovian Left goes berserk at the mere prospect of each new Trump initiative. Its escalating reactive venom and hysteria are calibrated to the success of Trump’s latest policy. Yet the new hard-left Democratic Party offers no counter-agenda to explain its furor. Still less do Democrats attempt bipartisan efforts to craft shared legislation. Take foreign policy. Democrat senators trashed the recent Trump-Putin Alaskan summit as a failure. Then they became depressed when, just days later, an entourage of European leaders...

California is launching a $250 million redistricting effort to reshape all 52 congressional seats, with Gov. Gavin Newsom—eyeing a 2028 presidential run—undermining the state’s independent commission to favor Democrats. Meanwhile, California faces skyrocketing gas and electricity prices, mass population flight, and crumbling infrastructure. Victor Davis Hanson breaks down how Newsom’s redistricting strategy mirrors Texas in name only and targets Republican incumbents on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

Trump’s Alaska summit with Putin yielded no ceasefire, but it revealed the contours of a possible peace—where diplomacy, exhaustion, and hard limits define the battlefield’s end. At the August 15 Alaska summit, Vladimir Putin performed as expected. He desperately wants an end to Western sanctions, détente with the U.S., and assurances that the U.S. will not impose a disastrous anti-Russian secondary boycott—and, apparently, some additional Ukrainian territory. Consequently, Putin, in his media synopsis, talked more about restored friendship with a “neighborly” United States under Trump. He scarcely mentioned Ukraine directly—other than to imply to Westerners that he seeks not merely...

Democrats decry “destroying democracy” while dismantling long-standing institutions, weaponizing agencies, and undermining the very systems they claim to defend. "Destroying democracy”—the latest theme of the left—can be defined in many different ways. How about attempting to destroy constitutional, ancient, and hallowed institutions simply to suit short-term political gains? So, who in 2020, and now once again, has boasted about packing the 156-year-old, nine-justice Supreme Court? Who talks frequently about destroying the 187-year-old Senate filibuster—though only when they hold a Senate majority? Who wants to bring in an insolvent left-wing Puerto Rico and redefine the 235-year-old District of Columbia—by altering the...

The Left claims they’re “saving democracy” from Donald Trump—but their actions tell a different story. Democrats have pushed some of the most brazen political scandals in modern history—from the Russia collusion hoax, to burying the Hunter Biden laptop, to hiding President Biden’s cognitive decline—all in the name of stopping Trump. Victor Davis Hanson exposes how the Left has undermined democracy in the very process of claiming to defend it on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

In 1945, Truman’s decision to drop two atomic bombs was grim—but it ended a war that could have cost millions more lives on both sides and unleashed even greater horrors. Disinformation and the Dropping of the Atomic Bombs Legitimate disagreement about the wisdom of dropping two bombs on Japan to end World War II in 1945 persists even 80 years later, as reflected in discussions this past week. But recently, there has often been no real effort even to present the facts, much less to consider the lose-lose choices involved in using such destructive weapons. In an age of revisionist...

Victor Davis Hanson breaks down what he calls the most sweeping political counter-revolution in modern American history—one that’s reshaping the military, the border, higher education, foreign policy, and the economy all at once. In this powerful analysis, Hanson paints a picture of a president who's not just reversing the progressive tide, but exposing it. Illegal immigration? Blocked. DEI and university corruption? Called out. Military recruitment? Rebuilt. Meanwhile, entrenched institutions are being forced to admit guilt—on antisemitism, on academic overreach, and on systemic rot. On the world stage, Trump is redefining diplomacy through strength—not surrender. Putin’s war machine and Hamas’ terror...

DEI is collapsing under its own contradictions—no longer able to define who qualifies, who deserves preference, or why identity should outweigh merit. Donald Trump’s executive orders banning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI)-related racial and gender preferencing have ostensibly doomed the DEI industry. But DEI was already on its last legs. Half of all Americans no longer approve of racial, ethnic, or gender preferences. DEI had enjoyed a surge following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent 120 days of nonstop rioting, arson, assaults, killings, and attacks on law enforcement during the summer of 2020. In those chaotic years, DEI was...

Black teens beat white bystanders in downtown Cincinnati as police, media, and public figures stay silent revealing a dangerous double standard on racial violence.

When American Eagle released a cheeky new jeans ad featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, the message was simple: she’s a natural beauty, and American Eagle jeans highlight that. But instead of taking it at face value, critics on the Left exploded, calling the ad “racist,” “eugenic,” and even comparing it to Nazi propaganda. On today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson breaks down the absurdity of the outrage and exposes the real history of eugenics—hint: it doesn’t come from the Right. “ We have all sorts of models that pose for jean commercials. American Eagle have had...

Trump is rewriting the rules of politics, economics, and culture—and no one, not even the experts, knows what happens when the old orthodoxy finally breaks. Donald Trump’s far-ranging counter-revolution, to quote the old Star Trek mission statement, seeks “To boldly go where no one has gone before.” Because no conservative president has dared to question the last 70 years of progressive cultural, social, economic, and political dominance, all traditional wisdom, all our renowned “experts,” and all the self-described “authorities” have no real credibility in their mostly flawed analyses and wrong prognoses. Read what our legacy media predicted in March for...

Recently, a large group of black youths began pummeling white adults in downtown Cincinnati. *** Numerous male and female black youths sucker-punched a middle-aged woman. Others continued to kick or body slam the victims. *** One, the violence broke out along racial and age fault lines. After the initial dispute, groups of black youths swarmed solitary older white bystanders to pound them. Two, the surrounding assembled group of black youths not only failed to intervene to restrain the bullies. They also recorded the beatings for social media and were heard cheering on the one-sided violence. *** Four, oddly few of...

What is the Democrat Party’s long-term strategy? They ran Joe Biden as their presidential candidate, then installed Kamala Harris as his replacement despite not winning even one delegate, and has since relied on radical party bosses and unpopular policies to combat Trump’s win. On this week’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson breaks down the party’s post-2024 election autopsy and explains why they’re doomed to fail if they continue on their trajectory. “ After the defeat of Kamala Harris in November 2024, the Democrats decided recently to run an autopsy, a discovery, so to speak, of...

At the start of August, the economic numbers tell a surprisingly strong story despite every prediction to the contrary. GDP is up, inflation is holding steady, unemployment remains low, and for the first time in years, the federal government actually ran a surplus in May. So why are media outlets still talking down the economy? And why is Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell refusing to cut interest rates, despite earlier recession warnings that never materialized? Victor Davis Hanson breaks it all down on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “Remember that The Wall Street...

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard just released a trove of apparently once-classified documents — with promises of much more to follow. The new material describes the role of the Obama administration’s intelligence and investigatory directors — purportedly along with former President Barack Obama himself — in undermining the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. In addition, their efforts extended to sabotaging the 2016-2017 presidential transition and, by extension, the first three years of the Trump presidency. The released documents add some new details to what over the last decade has become accepted knowledge. Congressional committees, special prosecutors, and the inspectors general...

Black teens beat white bystanders in downtown Cincinnati as police, media, and public figures stay silent—revealing a dangerous double standard on racial violence. Recently, a large group of black youths began pummeling several white adults in downtown Cincinnati. The original altercation apparently broke out between a black and white male in he-said/he-said fashion. But that dispute soon turned into a virtual free-for-all. Numerous male and female black youths sucker-punched a middle-aged woman and a man. Others continued to kick or body slam the victims, who were sprawled on their backs and seemingly unconscious. There were many disturbing aspects to the...

A disturbing, racially charged street fight came out of Cincinnati this past weekend, with a man and woman beaten to a pulp even after being knocked unconscious. But this has been all but ignored by the corporate media. Why? Victor Davis Hanson says the fight does not align with their narrative of America as a place of “salad bowl tribal identification” instead of being a melting pot. He breaks down the disturbing implications of the fight and reaction on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “ It was on Fox News and New York Post, etc.,...

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok deleted all of his posts on the social media site X Monday. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released documents and a memo July 18 detailing what she called a “years-long coup” against President Donald Trump after he defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. Strzok had been a key player in the unfounded allegations that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia, including intervening to prevent the FBI from closing a probe into retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who was Trump’s first national security advisor in his first term....

New findings suggest Barack Obama may have personally asked top intelligence officials to fabricate evidence meant to further the Trump-Russia collusion hoax during the final weeks of his presidency. Victor Davis Hanson breaks down role former intelligence heads John Brennan, James Clapper, and James Comey—Obama’s "three blind mice”—played in this on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words. “There’s new evidence that Barack Obama asked intelligence, investigatory heads—like John Brennan, like James Clapper and James Comey—to "find me evidence that you haven’t found yet so that we can continue the Russian collusion hoax after it was ineffective...