Free Republic

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s blanket fiasco may not have been about a blanket at all. The so-called ICE Barbie allegedly had her rumored beau, expired-special-employee Corey Lewandowski, fire a Coast Guard pilot last May after Noem neglected to bring her favorite weighted blanket onto the second flight of one of her trips. But three DHS insiders that spoke with the Daily Mail indicate that the spectacle may not have been about an abandoned blanket, but rather a mysterious bag with potentially embarrassing contents. . . .

The husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been barred from the department’s headquarters after at least two female staff members told officials that he had sexually assaulted them, according to people familiar with the decision and a police report obtained by The New York Times. The women said Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, had touched them inappropriately at the Labor Department’s building on Constitution Avenue. One of the incidents, during working hours on the morning of Dec. 18, was recorded on office security cameras, the people said. The video showed Dr. DeRemer giving one of the women an...

The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, two U.S. officials told Reuters, in what could become a far more serious conflict than previously seen between the countries. The disclosure by the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the planning, raises the stakes for the diplomacy underway between the United States and Iran. U.S. and Iranian diplomats held talks in Oman last week in an effort to revive diplomacy over Tehran's nuclear program, after Trump amassed military forces in the...

It’s known as “Don Colossus.” At 15 feet tall, the statue of President Trump, mounted on its 7,000-pound pedestal, is about the height of a two-story building — a giant effigy cast in bronze and finished with a thick layer of gold leaf. For more than a year, the golden statue has been at the center of one of the stranger moneymaking ventures of the Trump era. A group of cryptocurrency investors paid $300,000 to have a sculptor create it as a tribute to Mr. Trump, an outspoken crypto proponent. Then they used it to promote a memecoin called $PATRIOT....

The White House is dismissing backlash over a meme video the president posted on Truth Social late Thursday depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as gorillas. “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King,'” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.” *** The roughly one-minute video was mostly focused on claims of vote rigging in the 2020 election but showed AI-generated...

President Donald Trump has deleted a controversial video that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. Thursday evening, Trump posted a video with baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election that included a short clip at the end of the Obamas’ faces superimposed on apes’ bodies. The video was furiously criticized by members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, members of the media, and other political commentators as racist. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the post as simply sharing an “Internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of...

The White House deleted a meme video posted on President Trump’s Truth Social that depicted former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as apes — after a prominent GOP senator called the clip the “most racist thing I’ve seen” and demanded it be taken down. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defended the post and accused critics of fomenting “fake outrage” — but the video was taken down a little before noon Friday. A White House official added that a staffer had “erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the highest-ranking black...

Ilhan Omar refers to our great country as the "U.S. G*ddamn States." There is no circumstance in which she should refer to our country in this way. It is beyond disrespectful — it is appalling, disgusting, and SICK. SHAME ON HER!

The headmaster of Chicago’s tony Latin School will resign less than two weeks after it was revealed that students were rehearsing Nazi marching themes for the second year in a row. Dr. Thomas Hagerman revealed his plans to leave his job in a Jan. 14 email to the Latin School community which cited health issues as the reason for his exit. “This decision comes after a great deal of thoughtful deliberation. I have been repeatedly reminded about the importance of attending more intentionally to my health and overall sustainability,” Hagerman wrote*** The surprise resignation comes two weeks after middle schoolers...

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers will visit Denmark this week as President Donald Trump threatens a takeover of Greenland, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark that hosts a US airbase. The delegation will be led by Democratic Senator Chris Coons and will include Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Dick Durbin, along with several members of the House of Representatives, Coons’ office said in a statement on Monday.

President Donald Trump is set to be briefed by top aides this week as he plots out the level of his response to the Iranian regime's brutal crackdown against citizen-led protests. Trump's top military and diplomatic staffers, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine, are anticipated to be present at the meeting, per the Wall Street Journal. The meeting comes as Trump is understood to be considering further US involvement in the region, but no final decisions are expected to emerge until after Tuesday's scheduled meeting. Putting U.S. troops'...

Sen. Rand Paul expressed concerns Sunday over President Donald Trump’s threats to bomb Iran as the Middle Eastern country sees widespread protests continue. Speaking with ABC’s “This Week,” the Kentucky Republican said he is not sure striking Iran “will have the effects intended.” “We wish freedom and liberation the best around the world, but I don’t think it’s the job of the American government to be involved with every freedom movement around the world,” Paul said.Paul also expressed concerns over how the administration would distinguish between Iranian protesters and law enforcement if Trump were to approve military action in the...

Iran warned President Donald Trump on Sunday that any U.S. attack would lead to Tehran striking back against Israel and regional U.S. military bases as "legitimate targets", Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf told parliament. Israel is on high alert for the possibility of a U.S. intervention to support a nationwide protest movement in Iran, sources said.

The Trump administration is reportedly preparing preliminary plans for an attack on Iran, including the option of large-scale airstrikes. Officials are considering how to follow through on President Trump’s recent elevated threats against the Islamic Republic, including what sites might be targeted, insiders told the Wall Street Journal. A massive aerial strike campaign on multiple Iranian military targets is one option being considered — although Washington has not reached consensus on a plan of action. No military equipment or personnel have been moved for a potential attack, the insiders said. The conversations do not indicate that the US will strike,...

Mortgage rates plunged to their lowest level in nearly three years on Friday after President Donald Trump said he had ordered a massive government intervention aimed at pushing borrowing costs down. In a surprise post on Truth Social, Trump said he was directing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion worth of mortgage bonds — a move that immediately rippled through financial markets... New figures out this afternoon show the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped 22 basis points to 5.99 percent, according to Mortgage News Daily, matching the lowest level since February 2023...

Five Senate Republicans joined with Democratic lawmakers in a surprise rebuke of President Donald Trump Thursday, voting to advance legislation that would force the commander in chief to seek Congress’ OK before taking any additional military action in Venezuela. Trump attacked the lawmakers in a Truth Social post after the procedural vote, saying they “should never be elected to office again” and that the measure they supported “greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security.” Here’s a closer look at each of the GOP lawmakers and how they explained their votes: Rand Paul of Kentucky: Paul was a co-sponsor of...

President Donald Trump's focus on the brazen U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is frustrating some White House aides and Republican lawmakers, who want him to address economic and healthcare concerns in an election year, according to three people familiar with the matter.White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, her deputy James Blair and Vice President JD Vance are pressing Trump to prioritize domestic concerns, said two White House officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. Vance has been the most persistent voice in meetings, repeatedly steering conversations back to kitchen-table issues, they said....

The head of U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil on Friday told President Donald Trump that Venezuela is “uninvestible” under current conditions, saying major changes were needed before his company would return to the country that has seen its crude oil resources sink into disrepair. The comments by Exxon CEO Darren Woods were a blow to Trump’s hopes that American oil majors would move quickly to make big investments in Venezuela — and cast doubt on the president’s insistence that U.S. companies are prepared to spend $100 billion or more.

Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro denounced right-wing podcast titan Tucker Carlson as “an opponent of conservatism” who “has trafficked in nearly every conspiracy theory under the sun” in a speech*** Shapiro appeared at the largest conservative think tank in DC ostensibly to discuss his book, “Lions and Scavengers: The True Story of America (and Her Critics).” Instead, he took advantage of the platform to address what he called “the elephant in the room.” “If we care about conservatism, if, as Heritage Foundation proclaims, our goal ought to be to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of...

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., suggested Tuesday that President Donald Trump was a bigger threat to the American way of life than radical Islamic jihad. Schultz brought up the president when NewsNation host Leland Vittert asked her on “On Balance” whether she believed that Islamophobia or jihad was a bigger threat to American life and values after a deadly attack against Australian Jews Sunday. “I think we have to focus, quite frankly, on, if we’re worried about the threat to American values, on the person who’s in the White House. I mean, we have a president …,” Schultz began. Vittert...