Free Republic

Democrats cry “No Kings” while wielding royal power—raiding rivals, silencing dissent, and crowning heirs without a single vote. So-called King, Donald Trump, ran in two contested Republican primaries. He ran three times in a general election. He was elected twice, and his party recently won a Republican Congress. In contrast, in 2020, Joe Biden did not run a typical campaign. He avoided the public, staying ensconced in his basement. He outsourced his campaign to Democratic politicos, donors, and a sycophantic media. No red state ever sought to remove Joe Biden or Kamala Harris from their 2024 ballots. In contrast, twenty-five...

Hamas is an irredeemable terrorist cartel that subverts Gaza, uses civilians as shields, and must be dismantled and barred from power before any genuine peace can begin. Hamas was born and exists to kill Jews, seek the destruction of Israel, and, to some extent, overthrow or subvert pro-Western Arab governments. Period. For those ends, it diverted billions of dollars from the people of Gaza to build a vast subterranean labyrinth of military headquarters and arsenals. It expropriated hospitals, mosques, and schools for use as tunnel entries and exits, using expendable civilian shields to protect its rich terrorist hierarchy. Hamas always...

The short answer to why both the Biden and Obama administrations failed to achieve peace in the Middle East is that they took actions opposite to Trump’s current efforts, which have led to a ceasefire. First, consider Iran. Iran was flush with cash, on a trajectory toward a nuclear weapon, and arming Israel’s “ring of fire” enemies: Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. The radical Islamic world of the Middle East was convinced that Israel would be doomed eventually. Yet both Democratic administrations let Iran profit from oil sales. They talked of delaying, but not ending, Iran’s nuclear program. And they...

Trump’s unorthodox mix of pressure, power, and pragmatism shattered old diplomatic molds—delivering a rare moment of calm to the world’s most combustible region. What did Donald Trump do differently to obtain at least temporary calm in the Middle East compared to the failed efforts of past administrations, foreign powers, and the United Nations? Let us count ten different approaches. 1. Trump curtailed a considerable amount of Iranian oil income and its dispersal. He stopped, for the near future, the Iranian effort to build a bomb. Trump also allowed Israel to destroy Tehran’s air defenses, humiliate it militarily, and eliminate many...

Across the country, a new confederacy is rising—built not on states’ rights, but on resistance to federal immigration law. As cities like Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago openly defy federal immigration laws, Victor Davis Hanson argues we’re seeing the rise of a “neo-Confederate secessionist ideology” where local officials act as if they’re above the law on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “Sometimes it's sponsored or encouraged by the Democratic Party: Gavin Newsom in California, our governor, or Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, openly calling for resistance, or Gov. Pritzker of Chicago.

Van Jones blames “the Jews” for media silence on Nigerian massacres—but the real reason isn’t anti-Semitic conspiracy; it’s the left’s selective outrage and ideological blind spots. Van Jones, the CNN host and commentator, recently complained that neither the global left nor the mainstream media are covering the horrific violence against Nigerian civilians by Islamic terrorists. True, they are not reporting the slaughter. Truer still, they should be. However, Van Jones went completely off the rails when he blamed “the Jews.” Or as he put it, “No Jews, no news”—a stereotyped statement as anti-Semitic as it is untrue. In truth, lots...

Portland’s left-wing mobs and officials are waging a neo-Confederate-style rebellion—defying federal law, protecting illegal aliens, and turning the city into a sanctuary for anarchy. In blue cities across America—Portland, Oregon, especially—often violent protesters now seek to surround ICE facilities to stop federal officers from fulfilling their assigned and legal duties of arresting illegal aliens. Some 10 million or more illegal aliens were allowed to enter the U.S. during the Biden years—illegally and thus without criminal or health checks. Neither Antifa nor liberal urban America objected to such a flagrant disregard for the law. But both are now as intent on...

Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, there have been over 75,000 requests for new Turning Point USA chapters and many conservative commentators have written about his legacy and achievements, but what hasn’t been remarked about enough is, “What was the essence of his appeal to young voters?" asks Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” The answer? Charlie Kirk understood that young people, by their very nature, are rebellious. He wanted to take their natural skepticism and point it toward the establishment, which, today, is composed of the corporate media, higher ed, and baby boomers...

Historians traditionally blame the failure of the League of Nations--the post-World War I, Versailles-era dream of President Woodrow Wilson--on many things. Its membership was small (58 nations). The League's utopian rhetoric lacked commensurate force. The postwar ascendant United States refused to join. The winners of World War I, like France and Britain, were terrified of rearming, while the losers, such as Germany and Austria, were eager to. Consequently, the League in the mid-1930s allowed fascist powers to make a mockery of the Versailles Treaty. It could never even enforce its own embargoes and sanctions. Without big power backup, the League...

Trump, unlike the UN, is brokering cease-fires and curbing threats by wielding U.S. power through trade, leverage, and force—favoring deals over endless wars. Historians traditionally blame the failure of the League of Nations—the post-World War I, Versailles-era dream of President Woodrow Wilson—on many things. Its membership was small (58 nations). The League’s utopian rhetoric lacked commensurate force. The postwar ascendant United States refused to join. The winners of World War I, like France and Britain, were terrified of rearming, while the losers, such as Germany and Austria, were eager to. Consequently, the League in the mid-1930s allowed fascist powers to...

YT: Victor Davis Hanson rips away the illusion. China claims ancient superiority, but its military is nothing more than a knockoff of the West — from tanks and planes to tactics and strategy. Worse, Beijing exports its authoritarian model into our universities, silencing pro-Taiwan or pro-Israel voices while radicalizing students against America itself.

The left’s crude obsession with Trump and conservatives now fuels sabotage, slander, and even celebration of violence—proof their hatred has gone global and unhinged. Donald Trump just visited the United Nations to offer a customary annual presidential address. Before he arrived, there were reports that UN staffers had joked about shutting down the escalator to chastise Trump for cutting out aid to some UN programs. Upon arrival, as if on cue, Trump was met by a series of mysterious coincidences. As soon as he and First Lady Melania mounted the escalator, it suddenly froze—forcing them to walk up. Other escalators...

When merit is replaced with ideology, fires rage unchecked, killers walk free, and fragile systems collapse—leaving lives and cities in ruin. America has a lot of built-in safety backups and redundancies. But every once in a while, when tradition, science, time-tested protocols, and common sense are ignored, a fragile system utterly collapses. Usually, an iconic event reveals how vulnerable the entire country has become, and predictably occurs when suicidal ideologies and nihilism, in perfect-storm fashion, wreak havoc. The media, academia, the bureaucracy, and higher education can mask the dangers of their political agendas—at least until their sheer incompetence or toxicity...

Universities have long been captured by liberal academics, and the fight for America's youth on campus at times feels hopeless. What made Charlie Kirk effective was that he did not run from that problem but ran head-on into it. Victor Davis Hanson explains this key aspect of Charlie Kirk’s legacy, emphasizing how his approach was effective, and what our job is now to carry on his mission in saving our country from the campus on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “He did not go in the traditional academic pathway. He dropped out of college at...

Charlie Kirk’s murder sparked peaceful resolve, not riots—sharply contrasting the violence, destruction, and radical agendas unleashed after George Floyd’s death. Just days after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the left is working overtime to hide the truth and create fantasies about his death. Specifically, leftists alleged that conservatives were going to “pounce” on the death to wage protests and boost radical agendas in the manner of what followed George Floyd’s death. Here are some of the lies that such a ridiculous narrative entails. One, Charlie Kirk is not conservatives’ George Floyd. There were no mass riots after his death of...

America is currently sick. The young conservative organizer and media personality Charlie Kirk was just murdered in a political assassination by a 22-year-old ‘anti-fascist’ and trans advocate, Tyler Robinson. As planned, he eliminated the most astute and successful political activist in a generation. Indeed, Kirk may well have ensured that Donald Trump won the 2024 election by not just increasing his youth vote by 6 percent since 2020 but, more importantly, by margins in the swing states of 15-24 percent, ensuring Trump’s victory. No sooner was he killed than thousands on left-wing social media erupted in celebration—among them scores of...

Europe faces four self-inflicted crises—radical green mandates, collapsing families, unchecked immigration, and rising tribalism—that now threaten Western civilization itself. Europe is plagued by a number of existential crises. Yet they are all self-inflicted—and by a dominant, therapeutic culture that embraced utopian but lethal bromides. These suicidal wounds are now nearing the end-stage. Indeed, they are destroying the very civilization that was soon envisioned to be heaven on earth. The global warming hysterics could not just entertain gradual transformations away from dependencies on traditional fuels and power generation. Instead, elites have demanded catastrophic and near-instant “net zero” mandates. That radicalism entailed...

LINK: Victor Davis Hanson: The Left Is Gearing Up Against Trump’s CounterrevolutionThis video by Dr. Victor Davis Hanson is, in my opinion, prescient. At the 6:42 mark (Click HERE to go directly to this passage) He states:“...We’re going to see the counterrevolution I think, succeed, with one caveat: we are going to see, in the next year, a frenzy, a frantic, almost out-of-mind reaction from the Left because they know that if this counterrevolution succeeds, it’ll be very difficult for them to push down and unpopular agenda down the throat of the American people. So brace yourself. We’re looking at...

Democrats attacked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hard during his congressional testimony last week, launching personal attacks on the health and human services secretary. But it’s not just congressional Democrats on offense, as his own family is blasting him as an “embarrassment.” Victor Davis Hanson breaks down the Kennedy family’s hypocrisy—especially considering their silence on Ted Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick scandal and JFK’s infidelities—on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

Trump is enlisting tech titans to secure U.S. dominance in AI, biotech, and national security—reviving a modern-day War Production Board for the 21st century. The left weighs in on anything that Trump is against, which drives it to lionize criminals like Abrego Garcia, champion open borders, and oppose increased oil and natural gas production. And they are against anything Trump is for. So often, they did not care much about big-city crime rates, supported biological men’s usurpation of women’s sports, and opposed taking out the Iranian nuclear threat. However, recently, some former and, no doubt, current Trump opponents now seem...