Free Republic

Biden’s farewell boasts ring hollow as his foreign policy missteps—from emboldening Iran and Hamas to the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal—undermine his claims of global achievement. Departing President Joe Biden offered a farewell brag this week to his State Department about how his tenure had improved America’s stature abroad. In his now accustomed weird mix of whispering and fiery shouting, Biden apparently felt he had to lie or mislead about almost every one of his “achievements.” Yet to the extent that anything improved abroad on his watch—the weakening of Iran or the near destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah—it was due despite, not...

In this edition of The Daily Signal’s “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson delves into former President Donald Trump's negotiation techniques, which critics call “trolling.” Hanson discusses how Trump's strategies, as described in 'The Art of the Deal,' play out in various geopolitical scenarios: renaming the Gulf of Mexico, purchasing Greenland, renegotiating the Panama Canal Treaty, and making Canada a state: “In the case of renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the Mexican president showed a map recently of the southwest of the United States being part of Mexico. That was her counter. That's kind of a bad troll,...

California’s leaders are “charlatans and empty suits” for neglecting infrastructure and embracing performative politics, according to world-renowned historian and political commentator Dr. Victor Davis Hanson, who exposed policy failures he says have turned Los Angeles into a burning wasteland, comparing the city’s devastation to the World War II firebombing of Dresden. In a recent post, titled “Dresden in Los Angeles and Our Confederacy of Dunces,” which has amassed more than 1.2 million views as of Monday, Hanson delivered a fiery critique, calling out California’s leadership for its role in the disaster. In the viral post, he drew parallels between L.A.’s...

California’s DEI “humanism” and Green New Deal environmentalism ensured the cruelest imaginable treatment of thousands of people and unrivaled destruction of the natural ecosystem. Firebombing on the Pacific Over 25,000 acres are ablaze in Los Angeles in the Pacific Palisades fire, a veritable living hell. Some 12,000-plus structures were incinerated. More than 250,000 souls have been evacuated and are in need of shelter. No one has really taken charge yet. And now even the woke culprits for the catastrophe are blame-gaming each other to determine who was the more incompetent, which in this case translates to the most woke. No...

LA is burning. And the derelict people responsible are worried that they are found out as charlatans and empty suits. The leftwing voters who enabled them are getting angry over the inferno that their chosen politicos green-lighted—as if they are shocked, shocked by the consequences of their voting. The dam buster Nero Newsom made his accustomed fiddling appearance and then split—when the media began pointing out that he prohibits new reservoirs, sends precious water out to sea, blows up dams, prevents precautionary gleaning of forests and chaparrals, and then usually blames “Climate change” or “Trump” when called to account. Poor...

In this edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson, author of “The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation,” provides an analysis of California's wildfire management and policy failures under Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Hanson discusses the mismanagement of resources, lack of effective forest management, and prioritization of diversity and inclusion over merit in firefighting efforts. He labels the situation as a “systems breakdown” and warns of the larger implications for California's future.

Europe may soon quietly rejoice that Biden is gone, Trump is back, and they have a strong, loyal, and rowdy friend rather than a simpering enabler. Consider these European and American binaries. On December 20, 2024, a terrorist, Taleb Al-Abdul Mohsen, rammed his SUV into a Christmas crowd in Magdeburg, Germany. He killed 6 pedestrians and injured 299 others. Eleven days later, on New Year’s Eve in New Orleans, Louisiana, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar smashed his pickup into a festive crowd. He murdered fifteen and hurt over 35. Germany’s fertility rate is scarcely above 1.4—about average for a shrinking European Union....

Over the decade of Donald Trump’s political career, the left—as exemplified by Democratic politicos, the media, academics, the Washington military hierarchy, and the permeant bureaucratic state—illustrated a level of furor, venom, and near madness unprecedented in modern American history.

A decade of unprecedented fury at Trump saw his opponents undermine civil liberties, weaponize institutions, and set precedents that risk eroding the republic. Over the decade of Donald Trump’s political career, the left—as exemplified by Democratic politicos, the media, academics, the Washington military hierarchy, and the permeant bureaucratic state—illustrated a level of furor, venom, and near madness unprecedented in modern American history. Yet stranger still about such visceral, indeed lunatic hatred, despite Trump’s eccentricities and lack of a traditional political resume, his administration between 2017-21 was successful by traditional economic, military, security, and diplomatic standards. It was certainly not characterized...

Eighty years ago, Germany’s former conquerors rejected wrecking the defeated nation as too harsh. But now Germany is willfully pastoralizing, disarming, deindustrializing—and destroying—itself. Less than a year before the end of World War II, then U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau drew up a nightmarish plan to punish postwar Germany. After the serial 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War, World War I, and World War II—along with the failed Versailles peace treaty of 1919—the Allies in World War II wanted to ensure there would never again be an aggressive Germany powerful enough to invade its neighbors. When the so-called Morgenthau Plan was...

2024 marked the comeback of figures once dismissed, with Elon Musk and Donald Trump reclaiming dominance and Devin Nunes solidifying his role as a stalwart in intelligence oversight. 2024 proved to be the year of the reemergence of many once and unfairly pilloried public figures. SNIP Tesla’s rising stock prices ensured by year’s end that Musk was by far the richest man in the world with a net worth of well over $400 billion. His recyclable SpaceX Super Heavy starship rocket booster mesmerized the nation as it returned to the launch pad to be caught by a huge mechanical arm....

2024 marked the comeback of figures once dismissed, with Elon Musk and Donald Trump reclaiming dominance and Devin Nunes solidifying his role as a stalwart in intelligence oversight. 2024 proved to be the year of the reemergence of many once and unfairly pilloried public figures. Elon Musk weathered nonstop attacks on his X social media platform. Furor escalated over his newfound 2024 Trump advocacy—even as he ended 2024 with his iconic Tesla brand still the best-selling car in six states and the most popular electric vehicle in the entire nation. Tesla’s rising stock prices ensured by year’s end that Musk...

Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson said Thursday on his podcast that he believes all of President Joe Biden’s family members will be next in line to receive pardons. Since Biden’s announcement on Dec. 1 that he would pardon his son Hunter Biden of his criminal charges, the president has faced pushback over the decision, after adamantly telling the press he would not do so. On “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” Hanson said he believes Biden has been pardoning people based on what benefits the family and what provokes public outrage. “It works like this. He just said, ‘I’m...

Trump's 2024 resurgence marks a dramatic shift from his 2016 vilification, fueled by Biden's unpopularity, a longing for normalcy, and Trump's endurance through relentless opposition. In the weeks before the 2016 Trump Electoral College victory, Trump was polling between 35 and 40 percent. He would average only about 41 percent approval over his tumultuous four-year tenure. No one knows what lies ahead over the next four years. But for now, Trump already polls at well over 50 percent approval. Trump’s inauguration in a few weeks likely will not resemble his 2016 ceremony. In the 2016-7 transition, Democratic-affiliated interests ran commercials...

President Biden’s border policies created a humanitarian, economic, and legal crisis that dismantled immigration enforcement and overwhelmed American communities. Joe Biden, to the degree he was cognizant, has always reflected the Obama-era utopia dream of a borderless world, and thus millions of poor have illegally entered the United States. On numerous occasions, he offered clear warnings of what he would do if he ever had power over immigration policy. Do we remember this 2020 Biden boast to let in millions and offer blanket amnesties? “But I will send to the desk immediately a bill that requires the access to citizenship...

Drone swarms over American cities spark frustration as a distrustful public suspects the Biden administration knows more than it admits. New Jersey is now subject to nonstop and often sensational civilian reports of swarms of nocturnal drones crossing city skies and violating the airspace of airports and military bases. Terrified thousands demand to know what these drones are doing and to whom they belong. In response, the Biden administration had initially kept mum. Then, under mounting public pressure, it assured the public to be calm, given that most of the drones were likely launched by hobbyists and private citizens. When...

Never in U.S. history has a president-elect been welcomed as the real president before his January 20 inauguration. And never has the incumbent president so willingly surrendered his last two months in office and all but abdicated—to the relief of his nation and the rest of the world.

The welcomed counterrevolution is one of restoration. No one knows quite what is ahead, but all know that it is at least better already than the current nightmare. Never in U.S. history has a president-elect been welcomed as the real president before his January 20 inauguration. And never has the incumbent president so willingly surrendered his last two months in office and all but abdicated—to the relief of his nation and the rest of the world. One reason so many are welcoming Trump’s return is the universally desperate hope that his election spelled an end to a collective madness at...

Former President Barack Obama had long been rumored as the catalyst for the 2020 Joe Biden nomination — and thereafter played the whispering puppeteer behind the subsequent lost Biden administration years. As such, he and his coterie proved the virtual architects of the Biden administration, one of the most unpopular and failed presidencies in American history. Recall earlier that after a flailing candidate Biden lost the first three 2020 primaries and caucuses, his inert campaign was headed nowhere. Obama and fellow Democratic insiders abruptly engineered the withdrawal of his rival 2020 presidential candidates: hard left but likely sure-loser candidates including...

Obama's behind-the-scenes political maneuvering culminated in a failed Biden presidency that ultimately led to a significant Democratic electoral defeat and rejection of his political legacy. Barack Obama had long been rumored as the catalyst for the 2020 Biden nomination—and thereafter played the whispering puppeteer behind the subsequent lost Biden administration years. As such he and his coterie proved the virtual architects of the Biden administration, one of the most unpopular and failed presidencies in American history. Recall earlier that after a flailing candidate Joe Biden lost the first three 2020 primaries and caucuses, his inert campaign was headed nowhere. Barack...