Free Republic

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton said Tuesday on CNN’s “New Central” that no world leader should “equate” the opinions of the American people with those of President Donald Trump. Bolton said, “I think Trump is ripping through decades of American effort to build up good faith, trust, reliance, counting on the United States in times of crisis. And the economic cost of the tariffs are going to be bad.” He added, “I think you saw a little bit of that in the meeting today. The leader who was backing down in that meeting was Trump. He’d already made all...

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) said President Donald Trump’s tariffs caused the world to see the United States as an “unreliable partner.” Host George Stephanopoulos said, “I think you identified the tariffs as the number one issue. Liberation Day is probably the most consequential day of the first 100 days. Is there an exit strategy for Donald Trump on this? He asked, “Can he make this sort of series of deals that limit the damage?”

(AFP) — Developing countries should strike swift trade deals with the United States at the “earliest possible” opportunity, the president of the World Bank told AFP Friday, after a busy week with global financial leaders in Washington. Ajay Banga was interviewed by AFP at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meetings, which have been held this year under a cloud of uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s stop-start tariff rollout. The Bank has been advising developing countries to get a deal done quickly with the United States, and to then focus attention on cutting trade barriers and boosting regional...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday on MSNBC’s “Chris Jansing Reports” that Pope Francis was not “living in some alternative world,” so he understood the climate crisis. Kerry said, “He boldly stood up in front of Congress despite the fact there were some denialists there. He spoke the truth. And the climate crisis presents us, ironically, with one of the great economic opportunities of all time. And I think that, you know, the Holy Father knew that there were jobs there, but also the people who get most affected by the downside of what’s happening are the...

The “end of history” is over and Europe is experiencing a “transatlantic crisis”, says Ursula von der Leyen, former Angela Merkel acolyte turned European Commission supremo. “Another, new European Union” is needed to shape the “new world order” emerging out of power struggles between the United States, China, and Russia the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen told a German newspaper. Speaking to Die Zeit, the top Eurocrat expressed her interpretation of events that “The West as we knew it no longer exists”, stating that beyond the old understanding of what countries were Western and which not,...

Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that President Donald Trump “has won” with his tariff policies because 40% of the world wanted to negotiate. Kennedy said, “Here’s my point from one perspective, from my perspective, you may not, share it. President Trump has won. We have an opportunity here. I hope he seizes it.” Co-host Joe Scarborough said, “Senator, I don’t know that I would say the president’s one yet because we just don’t know how like you like you said, we don’t know how this is going to shake out.” Kennedy said, “When I say...

Billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, a staunch President Trump ally, has warned the world is on the brink of a “self-induced economic nuclear winter” – as he begged the commander in chief to pause his sweeping tariffs. “The President has an opportunity on Monday to call a time out and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system. Alternatively, we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down,” Ackman wrote in a lengthy X post Sunday night. “May cooler heads prevail.” Ackman, who endorsed Trump’s run for President, issued the stark...

The globalist World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab has begun to “start the process” of stepping down as chair of its board of trustees, the Geneva-based institution confirmed Thursday. The German academic said the forum, which convenes its annual gathering of world elites at the Swiss resort of Davos, must recover its “sense of mission” after a period of turmoil. The Financial Times first reported Schwab’s departure, citing a letter to trustee board members and confirmation by two people with knowledge of the situation. The missive reportedly said in part: I am deeply convinced that in today’s special context...

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said on Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Ana Cabrera Reports” that President Donald Trump was “destroying” both the rule of law and the world order. Blumenthal said, “I’ve been to Ukraine six times. I’ve met with Volodymyr Zelensky probably 15, in Paris, Munich as well as in Kyiv. I think the Ukrainians are going to continue to fight. When I first met with them, after they had pushed back the Russians, he said to me, we’ll fight with pitchforks if we need to. And they are so zealous because they are defending the independence and freedom of their...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) stated that President Donald Trump hasn’t brought down costs after “Joe Biden handed Donald Trump the strongest economy in the entire world.” And is undoing work “to make sure that the climate change that is crushing economies across the country is going to start to help improve.” Wasserman Schultz said, “Joe Biden handed Donald Trump the strongest economy in the entire world. He is the only president in modern times that had positive job numbers in every single year he was president. We passed the CHIPS and...

Champagne sales have lost their pop as people around the world aren’t in the mood to say “cheers.” The total number of Champagne shipments from France sank nearly 10% last year to 271 million bottles, marking the second consecutive year of declines as inflation-weary consumers cut back and a generally glum mood permeates across the globe. That’s according to new report from Comité Champagne, a trade association representing more than 16,000 winegrowers and 320 Champagne houses, which painted a dour picture of the industry that aligns with sales of other alcoholic beverages. Maxime Toubart, co-president of the organization, said bluntly...

Across the world, public finances are stretched dangerously thin. Per-person growth continues dropping while costs are climbing for pensions, education, health care and defense. These urgent priorities could easily require an additional 3%-6% of GDP. Yet green campaigners are loudly calling for governments to spend up to 25% of our GDP, choking growth in the name of climate change. If climate Armageddon were imminent, they would have a point. The truth is far more prosaic. Two major new scientific estimates of the total global cost of climate change have been published recently. These are not individual studies, which can vary...

Martin Luther King III, the son of civil rights advocate Martin Luther King Jr., said his father would be “quite disappointed” with the current world, but not surprised. King joined NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” where he was asked about the state of the nation and what his father would think. “He’d be quite disappointed, quite frankly, that we are where we are,” he said. “Probably wouldn’t be surprised, but he certainly would be disappointed because he always infused energy that was positive, bringing out the best of who we as Americans are.” King said that although Americans are more...

A book classified by the CIA for more than 50 years contains a shocking theory about how the world will end. 'The Adam and Eve Story,' written by former US Air Force employee, UFO researcher and self-acclaimed psychic Chan Thomas, was written in 1966 but its publication was halted by the agency. It was quietly declassified in 2013, at least in part, but remained hidden in the CIA's database — until now. In the book, Thomas claims that every 6,500 years, a major disaster on the scale of the Biblical 'Great Flood' strikes the Earth. While experts debate the exact...

The grim lesson of the devastating wildfires in California over the past week, which turned my community into ruins, is clear: private services work, and public services do not. I live in Pacific Palisades. My house is the last one standing on the corner. There is rubble in every direction. The streets along the route my wife and I used to walk in the evening are a post-apocalyptic scene. Every beautiful house we admired is destroyed; every child our kids played with is gone. A mile away, the center of town — which we call the “village” — is a...

The United Nations on Wednesday cried poor and said it wants $47 billion in donor aid for 2025 as officials fear cuts from Western states in general and the U.S. in particular ahead of noted critic President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House. “The world is on fire,” the U.S.’s new humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told reporters in Geneva, acknowledging he was looking ahead to 2025 with “dread.”

The most powerful countries in the world command the global stage with a unique mix of economic strength, military power, cutting-edge technology and cultural reach. These nations influence international policy and hold significant sway over global affairs, using their resources, strategic positions and diplomatic skills to maintain dominance. But power isn't dimensional; it's a complex concept shaped by how these factors combine to elevate certain countries above the rest. 6. South Korea South Korea has solidified its status as a technological leader, particularly in the semiconductor industry, with major companies like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix playing pivotal roles. 7....

Argentine President Javier Milei met with President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday night at a gala event in which he delivered a blistering speech against Marxism, embracing the president-elect and offering Argentina’s support on foreign policy. Milei is the first sitting world leader to meet with Trump following his victory in the November 5 presidential election. Trump is expected to return to the White House on January 20, only the second president in American history to win two non-consecutive presidential terms. Milei has been in office since December 2023 and won the presidency of his country on a similar platform of...

Legendary musician Quincy Jones has died. He was 91. Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, confirmed to PEOPLE that he died on Sunday, Nov. 3 at his home in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family. The news was first reported by the Associated Press. “Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.” "He is truly one of a...

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that while he’s not a huge fan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “over the last month, he’s gone against world opinion and American opinion on a whole range of issues, and he’s been absolutely right” in a way that has “served world peace” by weakening terrorist groups, and so those calling for him to declare victory in the wake of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar should accept they don’t have the same intelligence as Israel and Netanyahu has “been making some right calls over the last...