Free Republic

Seattle's police union has hit out at city officials after mass arrests took place in a park when counter-protesters gathered to demonstrate against a rally being held there. The Seattle Police Officers Guild said it welcomed a mayoral review of the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department's decision to allow the rally to be held in Cal Anderson Park on Saturday. "What we are struggling to understand is, why was this park chosen and authorized, especially when this park is commonly known as the heart of ANTIFA land," the police union said in a statement on Sunday. The park and surrounding...

Rarely has an economic policy been repudiated as soundly, and as quickly, as President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs—and by Mr. Trump’s own hand. Witness the agreement Monday morning to scale back his punitive tariffs on China—his second major retreat in less than a week. This is a win for economic reality, and for American prosperity. Make that a partial win for reality. The Administration agreed to scrap most of the 145% tariff Mr. Trump imposed on Chinese goods on April 2 and later. What remains is his new 10% global base-line tariff, plus the separate 20% levy putatively tied to...

The House Ways and Means Committee will soon release the GOP’s first draft of the party’s tax proposals, and the irony is that the bill may be getting worse even as a good bill becomes more urgent. President Trump has pitched a tax-rate increase that even Democrats failed to pass, and parochial demands are shrinking the pro-growth value of the bill. Republicans seem to have forgotten the principles of sound tax policy, even the lessons of the successful 2017 reform. Most of the 26 GOP Members of Ways and Means weren’t in Congress in 2017. The intellectual capital of previous...

When Americans were experiencing inflation and shortages during the Biden presidency, there was an internet meme going around that juxtaposed a paltry egg with the iconic 2019 image of a grinning Donald Trump, welcoming the national championship–winning Clemson Tigers to the White House, spreading his arms to display a massive bounty of burgers piled in front of him. The underlying message behind that joke became a central part of the 2024 campaign: Under Trump, Americans had plenty; under Biden-Harris, they had less. Yet bizarrely, the man who for decades has been a symbol of unapologetic American excess is now defending...

Firebrand Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene has issued a surprising statement critical of President Donald Trump. The Georgia congresswoman is known for her loyal support of the two-time president and her devout defense of his MAGA policy platform. Displaying her faithfulness, Greene likened Trump to Jesus Christ during the president's high-profile legal battles last year. *** On Friday, she issued a scathing statement putting distance in between her and the commander-in-chief. 'I represent the base and when I'm frustrated and upset over the direction of things, you better be clear, the base is not happy,' Greene, wrote on X alongside a...

The vibe around President Trump’s second term has shifted, and it’s all his doing. The president entered office with a bit of a wind at his back. His polling was better than the first time around, protesters weren’t in the streets, and federal investigators weren’t after him. The GOP was more united than in 2016 and business leaders wanted to work with him, while the culture was generally heading in an anti-woke direction. Now, though, his polling is in a marked decline. His job approval rating is sliding. Depending on what poll you believe, it’s down to 44 percent (Fox...

President-elect Donald Trump urged the US Supreme Court Wednesday to take the extraordinary step of halting his sentencing later this week in his Manhattan “hush money” case. Trump’s lawyers urged the nation’s highest court to step in after a New York appeals court refused to postpone the Friday hearing, at which he is set to face a no-punishment sentence.The attorneys argued that going ahead with the sentencing would unconstitutionally interfere with Trump preparing for his second term. This Court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to...

President-elect Trump told The Post Saturday he supports immigration visas for highly skilled workers, appearing to side with Elon Musk in the roiling intra-MAGA debate on the issue. “I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump said by phone, referring to the H-1B program, which permits companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” added Trump, who restricted access to foreign worker visas in...

Lets Remember All Mothers At Xmas. Mothers are the foundation of family and therefore of society. But in the modern industrialised materialistic world not all mothers have the respect owing to them and the protection of family or society. Lest We Forget All Mums Matter.

A migrant from Guatemala has been arrested on allegations he lit a sleeping woman on fire inside a Coney Island F train on Sunday morning. Police sources say a civilian identified the suspected killer as he rode on a train at 34th Street in Manhattan. The witness waved down the cops, who later picked the suspect up and detained him. He has not been charged with a crime yet, sources added. The suspect entered the country and was detained by border patrol agents in Arizona in June 2018 Authorities were still working to confirm whether he is in the country...

President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he’d consider pardoning embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Trump was blunt when asked by a reporter during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort if he’d come to Adams’ rescue with a presidential pardon. “I would,” he said. “I think that he was treated pretty unfairly.” The declaration came as Adams battles for his political life and potential freedom against a historic bribery and corruption federal indictment, which he denies. Many in Adams’ camp have seen another Trump presidency as a potential boon for his defense, either through a pardon or a sympathetic...

Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said gay people should be able to serve in the US military, in an apparent shift from his previous stance on the issue. When asked by reporters Thursday if gays should serve in the military, the former Fox News host and National Guard captain replied, “Yes,” Politico reported.Hegseth, who served tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay as an infantry officer, previously called policies allowing openly gay people to serve part of a “Marxist,” social justice agenda. In his 2024 book “The War on Warriors,” Hegseth wrote that the “don’t...

President-elect Donald Trump used a “forceful hand” to get his Drug Enforcement Agency pick to drop out on Tuesday after hearing “concerns” about the Floridian’s record, sources familiar told The Post — leading outgoing Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) to make a bid for the position. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister issued a lengthy statement indicating he was withdrawing his name for the DEA slot — but did not reveal the specific reason he was dropping out of the confirmation process after just three days. “Everyone knows President Trump calls the shots,” a well-placed source spilled. “The president heard the concerns...

The mother of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, wrote him an email in 2018 saying he had routinely mistreated women for years and displayed a lack of character. “On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” Penelope Hegseth wrote, stating that she still loved him.She also wrote: “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that...

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary, was investigated for an alleged sexual assault in 2017 but no charges were filed. The alleged incident took place in the early morning hours of Oct. 8, 2017, at the address of the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa in Monterey, California, the city said in a statement. The police department investigated 'an alleged sexual assault' involving Hegseth, a Fox News host and Army National Guard veteran, that was reported four days later, according to the statement. The victim's name and age are confidential. No weapons were involved, according to the statement,...

Exit poll results showed 79% of Jewish voters backing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, compared with 21% who said they’d voted for the Republican, former President Donald Trump. More responses are still being added to the poll, which was conducted by a consortium of national media outlets, and the results could change. If the current split holds, it would represent yet another election cycle in which Republican claims that Jews would flock to their candidate because of Israel or antisemitism did not pan out.Edison Research, which conducts the poll for the consortium, surveyed voters in 10 states: Arizona,...

Vice President Kamala Harris edged out former President Donald Trump in the US territory of Guam's quadrennial straw poll. With all precincts reporting, Harris defeated Trump 49.46% to 46.22%. Four years ago, Joe Biden defeated Trump by 14 percentage points. Guam is a US territory and its straw poll results, which have been held every four years since 1980, are non-binding and don't count toward the Electoral College. The island's straw poll result has corresponded to the popular vote winner in every election since 2004.

This week’s Emerson College Polling national survey finds 49% of voters support Vice President Kamala Harris, while 48% support former president Donald Trump for president in 2024. One percent of voters plan to support someone other than the major party nominees on the ballot, and two percent are undecided. When undecided voters are asked which candidate they lean toward, Harris’s overall support increases to 50%, and Trump’s to 49%. “Women and male voters break in near opposite directions: men for Trump, 56% to 42%, and women for Harris, 55% to 41%” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said....

A double-digit increase in popularity, rising Democratic enthusiasm and an early edge for representing “change” have vaulted Vice President Kamala Harris forward and reshuffled the 2024 presidential contest, according to a new national NBC News poll. With just over six weeks until Election Day, the poll finds Harris with a 5-point lead over former President Donald Trump among registered voters, 49% to 44%. While that result is within the margin of error, it’s a clear shift from July’s poll, when Trump was ahead by 2 points before President Joe Biden’s exit. But the transformation in the presidential contest goes well...

Another high-ranking official in the George W. Bush administration endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday, calling former President Donald Trump “perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation.” Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez revealed his support for Harris in an op-ed for Politico, saying he couldn’t “sit quietly” as Trump “eyes a return to the White House.” “The American presidency is the most powerful position in the world. Of course, our constitution and laws, as well as institutions such as Congress and our courts, act as guardrails to that power,” wrote the 69-year-old former...