Free Republic

While Los Angeles erupts in chaos, California leaders like Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass seem more interested in defending violent protesters than upholding federal immigration law. Despite relentless media attacks on Donald Trump—especially on the economy—polls show a 17-point edge for Trump over Democrats when it comes to economic leadership. Why? Because Americans aren't buying the Left’s hysteria.

The left’s martyr-making machine is in overdrive—recasting criminals, rioters, and radicals as victims, even as the public demands law, order, and sanity. The entire career of race-baiter Al Sharpton was founded on falsehoods about the Tawana Brawley scam. Nearly everything the left told us about the Trayvon Martin fight was false. The “hands up, don’t shoot” Ferguson fable and the Covington Kids myth were quickly exposed. The Duke Lacrosse and Jussie Smollett melodramas were laughable. Russian “collusion,” “laptop” disinformation, and Joe Biden “fit as a fiddle” gaslighting were utter lies. But more recently, the hard left lost its mind championing...

Recently, Gov. Newsom weighed in on the Trump administration’s efforts to undo the last four years of border destruction, when an estimated 10-12 million illegal aliens entered the U.S. unlawfully—among them thousands with criminal records. Of the recent Los Angeles efforts of ICE to detain those who entered and reside here illegally, the governor proclaimed: “Continued chaotic federal sweeps, across California, to meet an arbitrary arrest quota are as reckless as they are cruel. Donald Trump’s chaos is eroding trust, tearing families apart, and undermining the workers and industries that power America’s economy.”

Gavin Newsom calls law enforcement “cruel,” while presiding over chaos, crime, and policies that punish Californians just trying to survive his idea of compassion. Recently, Gov. Newsom weighed in on the Trump administration’s efforts to undo the last four years of border destruction, when an estimated 10-12 million illegal aliens entered the U.S. unlawfully—among them thousands with criminal records. Of the recent Los Angeles efforts of ICE to detain those who entered and reside here illegally, the governor proclaimed: “Continued chaotic federal sweeps, across California, to meet an arbitrary arrest quota are as reckless as they are cruel. Donald Trump’s...

Transgenderism, decadence, sexual deviancy, and moral decay were all present in Rome when the republic became an empire. What could this mean for America, which faces similar problems right now?

Biden’s border legacy isn’t just policy—it’s a demographic earthquake that will rattle America’s foundation long after he’s gone. The spiteful open-borders legacy of Joe Biden will plague America for generations to come, long after the former president is a fading bad memory. Somewhere between 10-12 million foreign nationals are believed to have entered the U.S. illegally under his watch, to add to the existing 12-20 million illegal aliens. Almost all were unaudited. They stormed the border for four years without background checks of the sort that American citizens must undergo to purchase a firearm or take out a loan. At...

Four months into Trump’s second term—and despite nonstop media hostility—he’s nearly tied or ahead in major polls. How is that possible? It’s simple: A booming economy, a foreign policy grounded in realism, a secure border, and popular working-class policies—all contrasted by a Democratic opposition mired in chaos, antisemitism, and no credible alternative. Victor Davis Hanson discusses this on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

The left cries “dictatorship” while wielding the courts, agencies, and media to undermine laws, crush dissent, and call it democracy. The left is in its usual sanctimonious but schizophrenic mood. The media claims daily that the Trump administration has usurped power. It is supposedly destroying democracy. It tramples on the rule of law and thus has created a virtual dictatorship. Yet at the same time, Democrats high-five the most recent district court judge who has put a stop to the current Trump executive orders—which the Trump administration abides by as it files appeals. There are two clear conclusions from the...

Sorry, Harvard, but we’re not going to give you billions of taxpayer dollars, no questions asked. The Trump administration is set to eliminate its remaining government contracts with Harvard University, totally over $100 million, reports the New York Times. This comes off the heels of the administration’s commitment to also prevent the once prestigious university from enrolling foreign student. The federal government does not have an obligation to blindly give a private university billions of dollars of taxpayer money, just like immigration officials are not forced to automatically give visas to foreign nationals, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition...

Democrats are trapped by the toxic DEI ideology they created—too afraid to reform, too broken to survive without it. A few Democrat officeholders, activists, and pundits are finally coming to their senses that their brand is toxic to a majority of the American people. The Biden administration killed what was left of it in a number of ways. First, it serially lied to Americans about the cognitive decline and cancerous condition of President Joe Biden, both while in and after office. Only when caught did the complicit media fess up that the Biden inner circle serially misled the American people...

<p>Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. I’d like to talk about debt, debt, debt.</p><p>All during the last few days, we’ve heard some startling news. Moody’s, the bond evaluator, for the first time in its history, since 1917, has lowered the credit rating of the United States government from Aaa to Aa1.</p>

Donald Trump is the first U.S. President in over 30 years who is seriously talking about reducing the country’s budget deficit, trade deficit and yes, the national debt, which has ballooned to over $37 trillion. However, he must follow a specific formula, otherwise, it will end in tragedy, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:” “Jermone Powell, the head of the Fed, will not lower interest rates even though there's been a good jobs report, a good inflation report, a good corporate profits report. GDP is gonna be evaluated, apparently, upward and...

Trump’s meeting with Ramaphosa was a long-overdue reality check on South Africa’s hostility, hypocrisy, and dependence on U.S. aid and trade. Nothing highlights the poverty of the media-Democratic mind than its weary use of echo-chamber buzzwords. Once Pravda-like instructions are sent out from DNC operatives, mindless media anchors mouth them in lockstep as gospel. So, it was with the supposed “ambush” when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met Donald Trump. Trump indeed pressed his guest on a number of issues, from the decades-long targeted killing of white agriculturalists on their farms by black hit teams that have totaled somewhere between...

FBI Director Kash Patel is shutting down the FBI headquarters in Washington D.C.—a decision originally made under the Biden administration’s FBI. Symbolically, the closure speaks volumes. Victor Davis Hanson walks us through the troubling legacy left behind at the FBI HQ on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

There are more mysteries than answers surrounding the Biden team. Why did Joe Biden's medical team announce right now—on the eve of the release of “Original Sin” — this shocking story that the president, who just left office 100 days ago, was suffering from a very seriously rare, malignant form of prostate cancer, asks Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:”

One of the most important reasons President Donald Trump won in 2024 was his very convincing case that the Biden family was corrupt. The president should act swiftly and make certain to an already hostile media that Qatar’s gift, the ‘palace in the sky’, is in keeping with ethical standards, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:”

The long-overdue shuttering of the FBI’s scandal-scarred Washington headquarters signals not just a change of address, but a necessary exile of the agency’s most politically corrupted core. Current FBI Director Kash Patel is closing down the agency’s Washington, DC, mothership office and moving at least 1,500 employees out of the DC area to regional offices. The decision was not just Patel’s. During the Biden Administration, it was determined that the 50-year-old Hoover building headquarters was structurally decrepit. More germanely, no prior FBI director had ever explained why nearly a third of the FBI workforce was centered in offices in Washington,...

Why did the DNC, White House staffers and even seasoned journalists lie to the American people when they decided to run cover for Joe Biden? It's not enough just to say, “Politics. We want power.” What was the strategy to make you do something so egregious, asks Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:”

Trump's first 100 days mark a chaotic counterrevolution, tackling crises long ignored—and infuriating the very forces that allowed them to fester. Pundits are confused about what to make of the first 100 days of the second Trump administration. Supporters talk of “flooding the zone,” believing Trump is making so many changes so quickly that his opposition is reduced to deer-in-the-headlights infancy. They must be right when the nation suffers daily Democratic pottymouth videos, vandalism of Teslas, infantile meltdowns at congressional witnesses, rioting against federal agents to protect illegal alien felons, protesting on behalf of women beaters, M-13 gangbangers, human traffickers,...

From secure borders to functioning cities, America is shedding the hard-won pillars of civilization—by choice, not chance—in a sweeping, top-down descent into disorder. Secure borders and stationary populations were considered the mark of emerging civilization by classical historians. In contrast to nomadism and constant strife over disputed territory, peoples who had clearly defined and protected borders ascended to statehood, maintained a distinct culture, and achieved greater prosperity and security. In contrast, what we suffered from 2021 to 2025 was unprecedented. It was an intentional administration effort to de-civilize the nation by destroying its borders—as if to return to the premodern...