Free Republic

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...

To call last week’s mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a “tragedy” would ignore the culpability of the shooter, Robert Westman—a man who identified as “Robin,” a woman. Victor Davis Hanson explains why this was not simply a tragedy, but an act of evil, and why the media and political leaders refuse to have an honest discussion about the factors behind it on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “They won't have any discussion over transgenderism. This falls in the broader category of exempt DEI woke topics, but I think we should talk...

Seven months in, Trump has curbed illegal immigration, steadied the economy, and scored foreign policy wins—while Democrats flounder without a counteragenda. Trump’s greatest achievement within six months was simply ending illegal immigration as we had once known it—without “comprehensive immigration reform” or any other rhetorical trickery. It remains difficult to find, much less deport, the 10 to 12 million illegal aliens who entered in the last four years. Those who helped break the law, by design or indifference, now believe it was moral to destroy federal immigration law but immoral to uphold it. And it is still unclear whether Joe...

Europe faces a breaking point as illegal migration, welfare strain, energy crises, and defense demands collide with shrinking populations and stagnant economies. Almost weekly in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, and Germany, a sensational assault committed by an illegal migrant—often enjoying some sort of state support or with prior arrests for the same crime—surfaces. Until recently, European politicians and the media sought to either ignore such news or accuse those who clamored for tighter borders, more police protection, and stiffer penalties of being “racists” or “xenophobes.” Until recently, that is. Mass protests are now common in Britain against the...

The FBI recently raided the home of John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser-turned-outspoken Trump critic, seizing documents allegedly tied to classified material. From Bolton’s role in the Trump administration to prior warnings from a federal judge about his handling of sensitive information and why the DOJ under Biden dropped its earlier investigation, Victor Davis Hanson unpacks the full backstory behind the raid on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

The Democrat Party abandoned the middle class for elites and identity politics—trading broad appeal for globalism, DEI dogma, and political self-destruction. The answer was not Trump alone. Indeed, irony abounds when Democrats resonate with the claims of the vestigial Never Trumpers that the MAGA movement “hijacked” the Republican Party. In characteristic projectionist fashion, the left is simply falsely attributing to their opposition the very hijacking that hit the Democratic Party. The Republicans are still the party of conservatism and traditionalism. But in the last decade, it adopted an expansionary middle-class agenda that has led to record party registration, its first...

The Pavlovian Left goes berserk at the mere prospect of each new Trump initiative. Its escalating reactive venom and hysteria are calibrated to the success of Trump's latest policy. Yet the new hard-left Democratic Party offers no counter-agenda to explain its furor. Still less do Democrats attempt bipartisan efforts to craft shared legislation. Take foreign policy. Democratic senators trashed the recent Trump-Putin Alaskan summit as a failure. Then they became depressed when, just days later, an entourage of European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suddenly flew to the White House. The Euros praised Trump for offering some sort of...

Democrats rage at Trump’s every move but offer no real alternative—only fury, obstruction, and failed policies voters have already rejected. The Pavlovian Left goes berserk at the mere prospect of each new Trump initiative. Its escalating reactive venom and hysteria are calibrated to the success of Trump’s latest policy. Yet the new hard-left Democratic Party offers no counter-agenda to explain its furor. Still less do Democrats attempt bipartisan efforts to craft shared legislation. Take foreign policy. Democrat senators trashed the recent Trump-Putin Alaskan summit as a failure. Then they became depressed when, just days later, an entourage of European leaders...

California is launching a $250 million redistricting effort to reshape all 52 congressional seats, with Gov. Gavin Newsom—eyeing a 2028 presidential run—undermining the state’s independent commission to favor Democrats. Meanwhile, California faces skyrocketing gas and electricity prices, mass population flight, and crumbling infrastructure. Victor Davis Hanson breaks down how Newsom’s redistricting strategy mirrors Texas in name only and targets Republican incumbents on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

Trump’s Alaska summit with Putin yielded no ceasefire, but it revealed the contours of a possible peace—where diplomacy, exhaustion, and hard limits define the battlefield’s end. At the August 15 Alaska summit, Vladimir Putin performed as expected. He desperately wants an end to Western sanctions, détente with the U.S., and assurances that the U.S. will not impose a disastrous anti-Russian secondary boycott—and, apparently, some additional Ukrainian territory. Consequently, Putin, in his media synopsis, talked more about restored friendship with a “neighborly” United States under Trump. He scarcely mentioned Ukraine directly—other than to imply to Westerners that he seeks not merely...

Democrats decry “destroying democracy” while dismantling long-standing institutions, weaponizing agencies, and undermining the very systems they claim to defend. "Destroying democracy”—the latest theme of the left—can be defined in many different ways. How about attempting to destroy constitutional, ancient, and hallowed institutions simply to suit short-term political gains? So, who in 2020, and now once again, has boasted about packing the 156-year-old, nine-justice Supreme Court? Who talks frequently about destroying the 187-year-old Senate filibuster—though only when they hold a Senate majority? Who wants to bring in an insolvent left-wing Puerto Rico and redefine the 235-year-old District of Columbia—by altering the...

The Left claims they’re “saving democracy” from Donald Trump—but their actions tell a different story. Democrats have pushed some of the most brazen political scandals in modern history—from the Russia collusion hoax, to burying the Hunter Biden laptop, to hiding President Biden’s cognitive decline—all in the name of stopping Trump. Victor Davis Hanson exposes how the Left has undermined democracy in the very process of claiming to defend it on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

In 1945, Truman’s decision to drop two atomic bombs was grim—but it ended a war that could have cost millions more lives on both sides and unleashed even greater horrors. Disinformation and the Dropping of the Atomic Bombs Legitimate disagreement about the wisdom of dropping two bombs on Japan to end World War II in 1945 persists even 80 years later, as reflected in discussions this past week. But recently, there has often been no real effort even to present the facts, much less to consider the lose-lose choices involved in using such destructive weapons. In an age of revisionist...

Victor Davis Hanson breaks down what he calls the most sweeping political counter-revolution in modern American history—one that’s reshaping the military, the border, higher education, foreign policy, and the economy all at once. In this powerful analysis, Hanson paints a picture of a president who's not just reversing the progressive tide, but exposing it. Illegal immigration? Blocked. DEI and university corruption? Called out. Military recruitment? Rebuilt. Meanwhile, entrenched institutions are being forced to admit guilt—on antisemitism, on academic overreach, and on systemic rot. On the world stage, Trump is redefining diplomacy through strength—not surrender. Putin’s war machine and Hamas’ terror...

DEI is collapsing under its own contradictions—no longer able to define who qualifies, who deserves preference, or why identity should outweigh merit. Donald Trump’s executive orders banning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI)-related racial and gender preferencing have ostensibly doomed the DEI industry. But DEI was already on its last legs. Half of all Americans no longer approve of racial, ethnic, or gender preferences. DEI had enjoyed a surge following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent 120 days of nonstop rioting, arson, assaults, killings, and attacks on law enforcement during the summer of 2020. In those chaotic years, DEI was...

Black teens beat white bystanders in downtown Cincinnati as police, media, and public figures stay silent revealing a dangerous double standard on racial violence.

When American Eagle released a cheeky new jeans ad featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, the message was simple: she’s a natural beauty, and American Eagle jeans highlight that. But instead of taking it at face value, critics on the Left exploded, calling the ad “racist,” “eugenic,” and even comparing it to Nazi propaganda. On today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson breaks down the absurdity of the outrage and exposes the real history of eugenics—hint: it doesn’t come from the Right. “ We have all sorts of models that pose for jean commercials. American Eagle have had...

Trump is rewriting the rules of politics, economics, and culture—and no one, not even the experts, knows what happens when the old orthodoxy finally breaks. Donald Trump’s far-ranging counter-revolution, to quote the old Star Trek mission statement, seeks “To boldly go where no one has gone before.” Because no conservative president has dared to question the last 70 years of progressive cultural, social, economic, and political dominance, all traditional wisdom, all our renowned “experts,” and all the self-described “authorities” have no real credibility in their mostly flawed analyses and wrong prognoses. Read what our legacy media predicted in March for...

Recently, a large group of black youths began pummeling white adults in downtown Cincinnati. *** Numerous male and female black youths sucker-punched a middle-aged woman. Others continued to kick or body slam the victims. *** One, the violence broke out along racial and age fault lines. After the initial dispute, groups of black youths swarmed solitary older white bystanders to pound them. Two, the surrounding assembled group of black youths not only failed to intervene to restrain the bullies. They also recorded the beatings for social media and were heard cheering on the one-sided violence. *** Four, oddly few of...