Free Republic

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...

Only two questions mattered going into Wednesday night’s GOP primary debate. Number one: Would any one viable candidate stand out among the crowd? Number two: If the answer to the first was “Yes,” would our champion distinguish themselves by acting as the absent Donald Trump’s proxy or by setting up a favorable contrast with the frontrunner? Trump’s decision to sit out the first forum of the 2024 primary season has been cast as a cautious, cowardly decision. It was undoubtedly the latter, but despite the illusion of political safety, the choice also came with considerable risks. If another candidate was...

*** Recent mid-year filings with the Federal Election Commission have shed light on which deep-pocketed donors are bankrolling which Republican hopefuls. Donald Trump*** former President Donald Trump remains a fundraising powerhouse. Past big-named backers, such as real estate heir Ronald Lauder ($4.4 billion) and private equity behemoth Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman ($32 billion) appear to be distancing themselves from the GOP frontrunner. ***Last quarter, his joint fundraising committee, comprised of his 2024 campaign and the Save America PAC touted a roughly $35 million haul. Multiple billionaires donated to the Trump-aligned Make America Great Again Inc. Super PAC during the first...

Barack Obama is “as insecure as Trump,” his biographer said this week — and doubled down on his book’s revelations that the former president “repeatedly fantasizes about making love to men.” David Garrow penned the 1,472-page “Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama” in 2017, which he discussed in a lengthy interview with Tablet Wednesday. The 70-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning historian sat with Obama for eight hours over three days for the massive tome, which received mixed reviews — and obtained letters from three of his former girlfriends. Among them was Alex McNear, Obama’s girlfriend when they both attended Occidental College***...

This is not the presidential portrait he wanted. A sheriff in Georgia said former President Donald Trump will likely have his mug shot taken if he is hit with a fourth indictment in that state. Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat anticipates authorities will adhere to “normal practices” if Trump receives an indictment for attempting to challenge the 2020 election results in the Peach State. “Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesn’t matter your status,” Labat told reporters during a press conference Tuesday. “We’ll have a mug shot ready for you.”

Donald Trump on Sunday vehemently denied directing a staffer to delete security footage at Mar-a-Lago. Special Counsel Jack Smith had lodged three additional charges against the embattled former president Thursday night, including over Trump allegedly telling an underling to have surveillance footage scrubbed after the Justice Department subpoenaed for it last year. “MAR-A-LAGO SECURITY TAPES WERE NOT DELETED. THEY WERE VOLUNTARILY HANDED OVER TO THE THUGS, HEADED UP BY DERANGED JACK SMITH,” Trump wrote in all caps on Truth Social. “WE DID NOT EVEN GO TO COURT TO STOP THEM FROM GETTING THESE TAPES. I NEVER TOLD ANYBODY TO DELETE...

CNN gives DeSantis softball questions while they root for the Biden regime to throw Trump in prison for 450+ years.This tells me that they don’t fear DeSantis. He is “approved” by the deep state. Major 🚩 Trump 2024. https://t.co/LIcwCXAlv9— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) July 18, 2023 ------------------------------Excellent interview. Tapper was fair and DeSantis came across as thoughtful, strong and presidential. https://t.co/BYAQ8Ptw6J— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) July 18, 2023

Donald Trump’s onetime Attorney General William Barr said Sunday the former president is “toast” after being indicted by the federal government for mishandling classified documents. “The government acted responsibly. It was Donald J. Trump who acted irresponsibly,” Barr said on “Fox News Sunday” of the 37-count indictment against Trump, 76, unsealed Friday. “They’re solid counts,” Barr said. “Even if half of this is true he’s toast.” Barr noted he believed that Trump was treated unfairly by the FBI in the “Russiagate” collusion probe and with the indictment brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in the Stormy Daniels hush money...

The draining of a swimming pool at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort that led to the flooding of a computer server room last October has reportedly caught the attention of prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith. At least one witness has been asked about the server room flood by prosecutors investigating Trump’s handling of classified material, according to a CNN report on Monday. The flooded room on the property held video logs for the Palm Beach, Fla., club, according to the report. The videos may show the movement of boxes of classified documents that Trump, 76, held onto...

Truck drivers who deliver Bud Light have been flipped the middle finger and vendors have been called homophobic slurs, according to beer distributors reeling from slumping sales in the wake of the Dylan Mulvaney fiasco. Several top officials at beer distribution companies told ABC News they have been put in an untenable position by Bud Light’s St. Louis-based parent company, Anheuser-Busch, which has seen sales of its top brand fall six consecutive weeks since the April 1 tie-up with the trans influencer. Aside from harassing truck drivers, distributors have faced intentional collisions from shopping carts as they drop off Bud...

Former President Donald Trump was ripped by some on social media and questioned by others after a bizarre Truth Social post in which he appeared to criticize Ron DeSantis shortly after the Republican Florida governor launched his bid for president. “‘Rob,’ My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!), yours does not! (per my conversation with Kim Jung Un, of North Korea, soon to become my friend!),” read Trump’s baffling post on Wednesday. The post was later shared by the Trump campaign in an email to supporters.

A polished Carroll, 79, showed up to the federal courthouse flanked by lawyers and wearing a cream-colored coat, sunglasses and carrying a maroon briefcase as her supporters chanted “We believe E. Jean Carroll.” Trump, 76, was not present.A jury of six men and three women had been chosen by early afternoon — but not before a pool of 48 prospects were grilled by the judge, including about their political leanings. The potential jurors were asked a multitude of questions, such as whether they had any affiliation with groups including QAnon, the Ku Klux Klan, the Proud Boys and other far-right...

“We will defeat the cult of gender ideology, and we will reassert the timeless truth that God created two genders, male and female,” he said. “We will defend our culture. We will reassert the Judeo-Christian values of our nation’s founding.” But Trump’s actions in 2012 appeared to be in contrast to weekend statements when he overruled the rejection of Jenna Talackova, a transgender beauty queen who entered the Miss Universe Canada competition. Talackova, then 23, was originally denied because she was not born a biological female, according to a past report. She and her lawyer at the time, Gloria Allred,...

Perhaps the most moderate candidate in the field as of this moment is Donald Trump. If you want a Republican who won’t cut spending or start foreign wars, Trump is still your man. Added to this now is clearly a discomfort with the fight over abortion in the post-Roe environment. Trump’s main line of attack against Ron DeSantis is from the left. He’s hitting the Florida governor hard for his past support for reining in Social Security and Medicare. He’s also called the governor’s culture-war clash with Disney “so unnecessary” and “a political stunt,” while not entering the fray in...

Earlier this year, an 18-year-old female athlete, Victoria Lee, died suddenly with no apparent cause – and the speculation about the reason for her passing began almost immediately. Tweets swirled that Lee had dropped dead from cardiac issues as suspicions turned to COVID and its vaccines. The comments section of news stories about her death was overtaken by vaccine skeptics, while tweets about her passing were also inundated with messages by vaccine doubters. In a statement, Lee’s sister Angela begged people to “stop contacting us, stop hiring private investigators, stop with the conspiracy theories.”

President Donald Trump announced Monday that he had located a gold-painted golf club given to him by the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — one of dozens of presents from foreign leaders sought by House Democrats. “I am pleased to report that after a search, we were able to find the gold (paint!) Driver given to me by my friend & former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe,” Trump, 76, announced on his Truth Social platform.“It was in a locker, with other clubs, at Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach County, Florida. It has never been used,” he...

Ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal posted her first social media message since former President Donald Trump’s indictment on Wednesday — writing cheekily, “Hope I didn’t miss anything.” The 52-year-old actress and one-time Playmate shared a photo of herself grinning and flashing a peace sign from a ski resort apparently in Vail, Colorado. “I’ve been out and about enjoying Gods country… I hope I didn’t miss anything 😊,” she posted. The subtle quip was a nod to the historic arrest of Trump in Manhattan Tuesday — a case in which she’s believed to be featured prominently. In the indictment, prosecutors allege that...

Although the landmark 34-count criminal case against former President Donald Trump hinges on his alleged hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, the Manhattan DA’s investigation also deals with a less-familiar name – Karen McDougal. McDougal, a 52-year-old former Playboy Playmate, claims she had an affair with Trump over a decade ago. She also says she was silenced when Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, and the leadership at American Media Inc. paid her for her story in the run-up to the 2016 election — and then buried it. *** In a Feb. 2018 report based on McDougal’s...

The Manhattan District Attorney’s case against Donald Trump centers around allegations the former president orchestrated illegal “catch and kill” payments in a scheme to suppress negative stories about him during the 2016 election that continued while he was in office, according to the indictment against him unsealed Thursday. Trump, 76, is facing a total of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, which each carry a maximum sentence of four years behind bars. Taken together, the ex-president faces a whopping 136 years behind bars, but if convicted at trial and actually sentenced to jail, the time...

Long-held values like patriotism, religion and community involvement are in retreat across America, according to a stunning poll released Monday. The Wall Street Journal/NORC survey found that just 38% of Americans say patriotism is “very important” to them, down from 70% who said the same in 1998. Slightly more Americans (39%) placed the same importance on religion, down from 62% who said faith was “very important” to them 25 years ago. ​The percentage of Americans who said raising children was “very important” fell to 30% in the new poll, down from 59% in 1998.