Free Republic

*** Mr. Gigot asks how Mr. Trump would persuade Xi Jinping to stand down from a blockade of Taiwan. “Oh, very easy,” the former president says. “I had a very strong relationship with him.... *** Mr. Trump returns to Mr. Gigot’s question: “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you”—meaning impose tariffs—“at 150% to 200%.” He might even shut down trade altogether. Mr. Gigot: “Would you use military force against a blockade on Taiwan?” Mr. Trump: “I wouldn’t have to, because he respects me and he knows I’m f— crazy.”...

Does anybody in politics understand tax policy these days? The Biden-Harris Democrats want to raise tax rates to Thomas Piketty French socialist levels. Republicans want to cut taxes, but they want to do so for specific groups to buy their votes. They’ve all lost the growth plot. Mr. Trump’s tax fumbling is especially disappointing because his 2017 cut in tax rates was the policy foundation for the strong pre-pandemic U.S. economy. But so far in this campaign he’s proposing hugely expensive tax cuts for different voting groups that won’t do much for growth. We’ve written about his promise not to...

WASHINGTON—Kamala Harris is making abortion rights central to her candidacy for president as Republicans struggle to articulate a winning message on the issue. In contrast with President Biden, who was reluctant to say the word abortion, the vice president has campaigned aggressively on it since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that eliminated the constitutional right to the procedure. At the White House, she has met with abortion providers and women who have had abortions. Earlier this year, Harris was believed to be the first president or vice president to visit an abortion clinic. After locking up the support to be...

In a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal, former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley came out way ahead of President Joe Biden in a general election matchup by a much larger margin than Trump polls against the current president. Haley, the former Governor of South Carolina, showed she would be a formidable general election opponent to Joe Biden, coming out 17 points ahead of the sitting leader, as compared with Trump's four-point lead against him. Haley began surging in the polls after the first GOP debate and has maintained that momentum through last week's fourth debate. A...