Free Republic

For someone who preaches the importance of diplomacy and outreach, even to longtime enemies, President Obama can be awfully tough on his friends. In recent months, he has offended most of the United States’ Persian Gulf allies. “All I need in the Middle East is a few smart autocrats,” he joked privately, according to a recent profile in the Atlantic magazine. Publicly, he has said he “weeps” for Saudi and Kuwaiti children. The United States’ European allies, he complains, have grown too dependent on American firepower to keep them safe. Even the United Kingdom, a U.S. “special” partner, has received...

This year’s singularly perverse presidential race -- on both sides -- perfectly illustrates Mr. Dooley’s observation that “Politics ain’t beanbag.” In fact, in almost makes action in the Roman Coliseum seem gentle by comparison! AT contributor Jack Cashill describes this race succinctly in his compelling article here: “The respective campaigns are vulgar, crass, sleazy, and dishonest ….” However, having looked away from the gore and closed my ears to the cacophony, I am supporting Donald Trump given the alternatives. but I think a look at the current state of play is in order before I attempt to justify my acceptance...

An Associated Press-GfK Poll released Thursday finds Donald Trump’s “unfavorable” numbers are nearing 70 percent. The AP reports: Seven in 10 people, including close to half of Republican voters, have an unfavorable view of Trump, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. It’s an opinion shared by majorities of men and women; young and old; conservatives, moderates and liberals; and whites, Hispanics and blacks — a devastatingly broad indictment of the billionaire businessman.Even in the South, a region where Trump has won GOP primaries decisively, close to 70 percent view him unfavorably. And among whites without a college education,...

Wednesday night marked the opening of this year’s Women in the World Summit (#WITW), which kicked off with Katie Couric interviewing Fox News host Megyn Kelly, whose feud with GOP candidate Donald Trump began with the first question she asked him at the first Republican debate and continues to this day. A great conversation with @megynkelly at #WITW about #Election2016, Donald Trump and asking the hard questions. pic.twitter.com/fvBZayU1dP — Katie Couric (@katiecouric) April 7, 2016 The Daily Beast reports that Kelly attributes the rise of Trump to “certain unnamed news outlets” that presented him with a free pass, “letting him...

Usually when Trump makes a wild accusation there’s some dubious peg on which to hang it, like when he claimed that Cruz was behind the ad in Utah from Liz Mair’s anti-Trump Super PAC targeting Melania Trump. That wasn’t true, as even Trump superfan Sean Hannity eventually admitted, but the ad obviously was designed to move votes to Cruz. Trump assumed culpability, wrongly, because Cruz benefited.What’s the peg for this new claim, though? Or have we reached the point where Trump is gaslighting his fans without any tether to reality? In an error-riddled statement released Tuesday night, the Donald...

A new Gallup report finds that enthusiasm among Trump supporters is what it calls, "extraordinarily high" at a combined extremely enthusiastic and very enthusiastic level of 65%. It reports Cruz supporters are at a combined 39% and Kasich supporters are at a combined 33%. Hillary's supporters are at 54% way above Comrade Sanders'44%.

The candidate has called Republican delegate rules "unfair" It’s no secret that Donald Trump loves a good lawsuit. Over the years, he’s sued former business partners, a journalist, and at least one little old lady—and on Sunday he promised to bring that litigious spirit to the 2016 presidential race. Facing an organized effort by rival candidates to game state selection rules and undermine his delegate haul, the Republican front-runner is threatening to sue for votes ahead of a potentially contested convention, a move that could foreshadow a new phase in the GOP’s ugly primary fight. “Just to show you how...

Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump described his foreign policy as an "America first" approach that will stop the US from being systematically "ripped off." The Republican frontrunner, who has spent his entire career in business, gave the most in-depth discussion so far on foreign policy in a phone interview with the New York Times. During the conversation, he detailed his views on issues ranging from East Asian security to Syria, the Islamic State group and relations with allies such as Saudi Arabia. Trump said he was not an isolationist, but described the United States as a poor debtor nation that...

It's easy for me to understand why people were so favorably disposed toward Trump at first because initially, I liked him, too. I'd read and liked Trump's books, I found him to be gracious in person and I had friends who went to work for him. I also loved his charisma, his stance on the wall, his refreshing lack of political correctness, his scrappiness and his ability to just shrug off what would be career-ending mistakes for other Republican politicians. Unfortunately today, Trump looks to be completely unelectable. There are massive numbers of Republicans pledging not to vote for him...

Clinton backers who tout their "realism" need to get real about how she'll handle the shitstorm coming from Trump There are many nauseating aspects of the new reality TV series, “America Picks a Prez,” which airs around the clock on every single channel on earth: the cynical, open-air conspiracy between our Fourth Estate and Donald “Ratings Viagra” Trump. Ted Cruz uttering the word “prayerfully“ while not exploding into a cloud of synthetic piety. Caucasian patriots heroically exercising their right to punch people of color. Among these, let me nominate one more: listening to Hillary partisans explain to those of us...

As the spring draws nigh, Donald Trump, the businessman and media personality turned presidential candidate, is considered in many quarters to be all that is wrong about politics. Bernie Sanders supporters have taken to violently disrupting Trump campaign rallies. On the other side of the political spectrum, Republican movers and shakers are scheming to deny Trump the nomination by any means necessary, even if it means supporting Senator Ted Cruz. So, the logical consequence of this state of affairs is that comparing any other politician to Donald Trump is the worst insult one can devise short of violating Godwin’s law...

Donald Trump’s meat was the topic of social media chatter on Tuesday after his overwhelming victory in the Michigan and Mississippi primaries.During a press conference held at his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla., the GOP front-runner spent time touting what he said were his his name-brand line of Trump Steaks. The billionaire started the gourmet steak line in 2007 and sold it through Sharper Image.But as some observers pointed out on Twitter, the filets Trump was serving up at the event came wrapped in packaging from a company not affiliated with the his business empire.“Trump steaks. Where are...

WATCH THE VIDEO - No mater where you stand on Trump, it is a great analysis of how he's become the front runner. When you think of the 2016 Presidential campaign, one name comes to mind - TRUMP. Every day, news stories come out about his inflammatory comments, his stubborn, unapologetic debate strategy...and that's EXACTLY the way he wants it. Trump is no traditional politician; his tactics come from somewhere else, and that place is REALITY TV. Trump's long history in reality television has given him the perfect strategic edge in the political arena, and so far he's winning the...

I rarely agree with Frank Bruni of the New York Times about much, but he's spot-on today: Over the last few months and even weeks, the question among many flabbergasted Republican traditionalists and incredulous political analysts was when the forces of gravity would catch up with Donald Trump and send him tumbling to earth. It was going to happen. Of course it was going to happen. You just had to be patient. You just had to be strong. But in the wake of his victories in New Hampshire and now South Carolina, the question is no longer "when." It's "if."...

After a second place finish in South Carolina's Republican primary, Marco Rubio laughed off a suggestion by Donald Trump that the Florida senator may not be eligible to run for president. "I'm gonna spend zero time on his interpretation of the Constitution with regards to eligibility and I'm gonna spend all my time talking about what this campaign should be about," Rubio said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." On Saturday Trump retweeted a Twitter user's claim that Rubio is ineligible to be president. When asked about the retweet, Trump said in a separate interview on "This Week" he had never...

Donald Trump attacked Republicans this morning for their opposition to government-provided health care. Appearing on Meet the Press, Trump told host Chuck Todd, "We're not going to let people die in squalor because we are Republicans, okay?" "That's part of the problem with the Republicans, somehow they got fed into this horrible position," Trump said. "We're going to take care of people." Trump also said he didn't mean to express support for Obamacare's individual mandate during Thursday night's CNN town hall when he told Anderson Cooper, "I like the mandate." "We had a situation where we were Anderson Cooper, who's...

The candidates for president and their big-money allies have spent more than $682 million through the end of January, according to federal disclosures. But money hasn't bought success. There’s one area where Donald Trump is badly trailing the field — spending ― and that makes his resounding wins in South Carolina and New Hampshire all the more frustrating to his Republicans he’s trouncing and worrisome to the party leaders trying to block him from winning the nomination. According to a POLITICO analysis of reports filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission, through the end of January the campaign of the...

Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump on Sunday said he does not know what he was trying to say during a 2002 interview in which he supported the Iraq invasion. Asked if he was in favor of invading Iraq by radio show host Howard Stern, Trump responded: "Yeah, I guess so. You know, I wish it was - I wish the first time it was done correctly." Asked Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" to clarify the comment, Trump said he doesn't know what he meant. "Well, what I mean by that is it almost shouldn't have been done, and, you...

For months, Donald Trump's antagonists in rival campaigns, in the GOP establishment and in the punditocracy have believed the time would come, someday, when Trump would say something so outrageous, so over-the-top, so out there that the scales would finally fall from his supporters' eyes and the Trump candidacy would collapse. The South Carolina campaign, some believed, would be that time.

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 26m26 minutes ago I was asked about healthcare by Anderson Cooper & have been consistent- I will repeal all of #ObamaCare, including the mandate, period. I was referring to a backstop for pre-existing conditions. I will eliminate the law, in its entirety, & replace it w/ something much better. I will replace it with private plans, health savings accounts, & allow purchasing across state lines. Maximum choice & freedom for consumer. I'm self-funding and I am going to take care of the people – not the special interests and insurance companies like the other candidates. Remember,...