Free Republic

Donald Trump is set to face a second defamation trial in Manhattan federal court — where jurors deciding how much he owes rape accuser E. Jean Carroll will hear him on tape bragging about grabbing women “by the p—y.” On Tuesday morning, Trump announced on Truth Social that he would attend the trial in person, writing ‘After a historic win in Iowa, I am going to the Biden encouraged Witch Hunt in Lower Manhattan to fight against a FAKE Case from a woman I have never met, seen, or touched (Celebrity Lines don’t count!). *** Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba...

Donald Trump won’t deliver his own closing statement at his New York civil fraud trial after all — after the judge said he needed to stick to “relevant, material facts.” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron emailed Trump attorney Christopher Kise Wednesday saying he was assuming the 77-year-old former president wouldn’t agree to the “lawful limits” and “therefore, he will not be speaking in court tomorrow.” Kise first notified the judge in a January 4 email that after the lawyers give their arguments in the $370 million case on Thursday, “President Trump plans to present argument at closing as well,”...

Rob Smith, a Black and gay conservative influencer, was the target of vile homophobic and racist harassment at an event that took place alongside Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona over the weekend. The harassment was caught on tape and Smith joined CNN’s Abby Phillip on Tuesday night to discuss it and what it says about the larger Republican Party. “Well, the first thing that I want to say is that anybody that thinks that this is somehow in some way fake or staged, I wanted to tell them that the hate crime that happened to Jussie Smollett was...

Former President Donald Trump, in a new court filing Monday, again urged a Georgia judge to dismiss his Fulton County election interference charges on First Amendment grounds, arguing that the indictment against him is "categorically invalid" because it seeks to criminalize "core political speech." "President Trump enjoys the same robust First Amendment rights as every other American," said the new filing from Trump attorneys Steve Sadow and Jennifer Little. "The indictment here does not merely criminalize conduct with an incidental impact on protected speech; instead, it directly targets core protected political speech and activity." The new filing supports the arguments...

As his trial brought by New York Democrat Attorney General Letitia James before Democrat Judge Arthur Engoron comes to an expected close this week, former President Donald Trump declared Sunday he will not be testifying Monday as has been previously expected. "The fact that our unassailable final expert witness has been so strong and irrefutable in his testimony, which will conclude on Tuesday, & that I have already testified to everything & have nothing more to say other than that this is a complete & total election interference (Biden campaign!) witch hunt, that will do nothing but keep businesses out...

Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump railed against “so-called Christians” and “pieces of s—” evangelicals who supported Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the 2016 Iowa caucuses, according to a forthcoming book. At the time, allies of Cruz had been making hay of Trump’s flub before an audience at Virginia’s Liberty University, a conservative evangelical college, in which he botched a question about his favorite Bible verse and replied that it came from the book of “Two Corinthians,” rather than “Second Corinthians.” “The laughter and ridicule were embarrassing enough for Trump,” Tim Alberta writes in his new book, “The Kingdom, the Power,...

New York Attorney General Letitia James has been handed a "smoking gun" in the civil fraud case against Donald Trump, according to an attorney. Jeffrey McConney, the Trump Organization's former corporate controller, testified on Tuesday that it was his understanding that Trump reviewed financial statements before they were finalized, contradicting previous testimony."This was probably the worst day for Donald in the New York City fraud case," attorney Joe Gallina said during an interview with Mary Trump, the former president's estranged niece. "This was very simply the smoking gun Attorney General Letitia James was looking for." James filed a lawsuit against...

Make America Great Again Inc., the super PAC backing former President Donald Trump, has spent a magnitude more on ads targeting 2024 rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis than on President Biden — despite Trump leading the GOP field by over 40 points on average. MAGA Inc. has spent over $23 million funding ads opposing DeSantis and over $6.7 million against Biden, according to data published by Rob Pyers, research director for the California Target Book. The large discrepancy in spending shows Trump’s camp is engaged in the primary election and is not merely focusing on beating Biden, as the former...

Gov. Andy Beshear has won the Kentucky governor’s race, beating his Trump-endorsed challenger, Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, to secure a second term. *** The 45-year-old Beshear, son of former Kentucky governor Steve Beshear, is the first Democratic governor to win reelection in the commonwealth since 2011, when his father accomplished the same feat. *** In one of the nation’s most expensive political campaigns, where nearly $74 million was raised and spent, Beshear maintained a high level of popularity in his first term as governor despite being a Democrat in Kentucky’s increasingly Republican-leaning political climate. In his re-election pitch to...

Former President Donald Trump is distancing himself from attorney Sidney Powell in the wake of her guilty plea in the Georgia election interference case. “Sidney Powell was one of millions and millions of people who thought, and in ever increasing numbers still think, correctly, that the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN," Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Sunday. "Despite the Fake News reports to the contrary, and without even reaching out to ask the Trump Campaign, MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS," he wrote.*** Eric Segall, a law...

President Biden is in a dead heat with former President Donald Trump in Michigan and holds narrow leads over his GOP rival in Minnesota and Colorado in a hypothetical 2024 rematch, according to a poll on Monday that focuses on key battlegrounds. *** This is particularly true in Colorado, where Mr. Biden has a 4-percentage-point lead over Mr Trump despite having won by a much larger margin in 2020. *** The emerging 2024 race is tight, with 44% of Michigan voters supporting Mr. Biden, 43% supporting Mr. Trump, 8% supporting someone else and 5% undecided.Mr. Kimball said the majority of...

President Biden edged out former President Trump in a poll released this week, leading by just 1 point. Biden’s support is between 45 percent and 49 percent against each Republican running for the White House, including the narrow lead over Trump. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), however, has a 2-point edge over the sitting president, according to a Fox News poll.And former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley tops Biden by 4 points, the survey shows Fox News also noted that the poll results, published Wednesday, mark the first time this cycle that Trump has fared worse against Biden than the...

Former President Donald Trump has drawn outrage from pro-life conservatives after he panned a six-week abortion ban championed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as “terrible.” “I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,” Trump, 77, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked about the policy in an interview that aired Sunday. The 45th president’s remarks triggered backlash among anti-abortion activists, including from groups like Live Action and Students for Life,*** “Pathetic and shameful. Trump is actively attacking the very pro-life laws made possible by Roe’s overturning,” Lila Rose of Live Action said on X, formerly...

In his latest gaffe-laden speech, Donald Trump appeared to suggest former President Barack Obama was running in 2024 as he warned that “cognitively impaired” President Joe Biden could lead the country into “World War Two” if he wins re-election.During his remarks at the Washington DC Pray Vote Stand Summit on Friday, the former president said: “We have a man who is totally corrupt and the worst president in the history of our country, who is cognitively impaired, in no condition to lead, and is now in charge of dealing with Russia and possible nuclear war.” “Just think of it. We...

Journalist Megyn Kelly interrogated former President Donald Trump this week over his elevation of the controversial Dr. Anthony Fauci during the COVID-19 pandemic — noting that the 45th president formally honored Fauci before departing the White House. “Not only did you not fire Fauci, who is loathed by many — millions of Republicans in particular, but also some Democrats — you made him a star,” Kelly said during an interview that aired on SiriusXM. “This is the criticism of you, that you made him the face of the White House Coronavirus Task Force — he was out at every presser...

Donald Trump has repeatedly taken credit for the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to revoke a constitutional right to abortion care, a landmark ruling that has upended abortion access for millions of Americans in the months that followed. Within his one four-year term, the former president appointed three conservative justices to the nine-member panel, tilting the court’s ideological balance in a promised effort to achieve a long-held Republican goal of overturning the 1973 decision in Roe v Wade. The conservative majority’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization has proved unpopular with most Americans and has fuelled victories in...

Former President Donald Trump is on the hook for damages in E. Jean Carroll’s upcoming trial accusing him of defaming her by claiming she made up her sexual abuse allegations against him, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Trump’s 2019 claim that the 79-year-old “Ask E. Jean” advice columnist had concocted the abuse charges “to get publicity” was a lie made with “actual malice,” Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote. Kaplan in his ruling cited a Manhattan federal jury’s May verdict finding Trump, 77, liable for sexual abuse and defamation — and ordering him to pay $5 million in damages —...

A New York state judge on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump's bid to delay a scheduled Oct. 2 trial in state Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud lawsuit accusing him, family members and his business of overvaluing assets by billions of dollars. Trump and the other defendants had said the trial should be "briefly" delayed until three weeks after Justice Arthur Engoron ruled on both sides' requests for summary judgments, which seek victory on various legal issues without the need for a trial. In a Tuesday night court filing, Trump accused James of "callous disregard" of a June 27 appeals court...

Ann Coulter escalated her war of words with Donald Trump, branding the former president a “gigantic p—y” after he referred to the conservative commentator as a “has-been” and a “stone cold loser.” “Trump begged me to come to Bedminster this week, I said only if I could record a substack with him, but the GIGANTIC P—Y is too afraid of me, so instead he did this,” Coulter wrote in a post on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter. *** The firebrand conservative media personality records a video interview show called “Unsafe” that she publishes on subscription-based Substack,...

The betting odds say the next election will likely be a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. It’s odd since polls show most Americans don’t like either man. Trump is simply mean. He humiliates people, taking pleasure in mocking them publicly. In his real-estate work, he’s famous for not paying little people who work for him. He stiffed a cabinet-builder, a dishwasher, and a plumber. *** Trump lies even about unimportant things, like the crowd at his inauguration, ratings for his TV show, even claiming he won a nonexistent “Man of the Year” award. And of course, he lies...