Free Republic

ust hours after she declared Donald Trump to be the “biggest wimp” in U.S. presidential history for agreeing to temporarily end the government shutdown without any assurance of funding for his border wall, Ann Coulter appeared on “Real Time” to talk about it with Bill Maher. But as it turned out, Coulter mostly defended POTUS from criticism — except about the wall.

The gods aren’t dead, they are sniveling. That’s the analysis of Ann Coulter, the conservative commentator and former disciple of President Trump, a man she once described as her “emperor god.” Trump ended the shutdown without funding for his promised border wall, and Coulter cursed. Trump won’t just go down in history as the “the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States,” as Coulter suggested in one tweet, he isn’t even in charge anymore. Mocking Trump’s public complaints about the arrest of longtime adviser Roger Stone in another, Coulter taunted, “if you were president, you could...

Several months into the Trump administration, I started running a daily “Border Wall Construction Update” on Twitter, announcing how many miles of the wall had been completed that day and how many miles since the inauguration. It was always the same numbers: 0 and 0, respectively. I was immediately attacked by people in the Trump base. You’re being unfair, he hasn’t had enough time, there’s a legislative process, he’s doing the best he can. As days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months and months turned to years, and not 1 inch of the wall was built, the “3-D...

Several months into the Trump administration, I started running a daily "Border Wall Construction Update" on Twitter, announcing how many miles of the wall had been completed that day and how many miles since the inauguration. It was always the same numbers: 0 and 0, respectively. I was immediately attacked by people in the Trump base. You're being unfair, he hasn't had enough time, there's a legislative process, he's doing the best he can. As days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months and months turned to years, and not 1 inch of the wall was built, the "3-D...

Will wonders never cease?  Erick Erickson, one of the original leaders of the NeverTrump movement and the one who initiated the NeverTrump hashtag, has come out saying he will vote for the Trump-Pence ticket in 2020.  Quoting Erickson: I will vote for Donald Trump and Mike Pence.  And, to be clear, it will not be just because of what the other side offers, but also because of what the Trump-Pence team has done.  They've earned my vote. My, my, my.  Probably not many here care what Erickson has to offer.  I don't.  But look at his conversion as yet another straw in the wind pointing...

Pompeo began his trip with a Monday stop at the statue of Ronald Reagan in Budapest’s Liberty Square, completed in 2011 to commemorate his administration’s stalwart opposition to the Soviets. Then, on Tuesday morning in Bratislava, the secretary of state visited the Gate of Freedom memorial at Slovakia’s Austrian border. He ended the day with a meeting with Poland’s foreign minister, Jakub Czaputowicz. At every stop, Pompeo reminded his audience of U.S. and international reporters of the grim legacy of Soviet Communism while paying tribute to his host countries, which, he said, “cast off the Soviet yoke.” At the Gate...

After President Trump’s State of the Union Address, there seems to have emerged one common thread that is uniting the two parties. Both agree that the cost of prescription drugs is far too high in the United States. Trump mentioned it in his speech, and the theme has been invoked in countless post-speech interviews by elected Democrats. America spends far more per capita on healthcare than other developed nations, and yet drug prices here dwarf those in other countries. In one analysis carried out by Reuters, researchers found that top-selling drugs in the U.S. cost roughly triple what their counterparts...

The Justice Department filed an appeal Wednesday of its devastating defeat against Cliven Bundy in the Nevada standoff, disputing the federal judge’s decision last year to throw out the case based on prosecutorial wrongdoing. The 88-page motion, filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, challenged Chief U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro’s blistering finding of “flagrant” misconduct, which prompted her to declare a mistrial in December 2017 and dismiss the charges a month later. U.S. Attorney for Nevada Nicholas A. Trutanich, who took over last month, insisted that the government had “timely disclosed significant discovery,” refuting the judge’s...

More Senate skullduggery, Trump’s role in this, straight lines, and the Bundy case again Senate chicanery Last month I wrote of the skullduggery applied by both political parties in trying to pass a 680-page federal lands package in the waning moments of the last Congress. Up stepped our hero, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) who just wanted to add two words to the legislation. Alaska and Wyoming are by statute exempt from the Antiquities Act that has been so abused by recent Presidents. Senator Lee wanted to add “and Utah” to that statute. The leadership said no to his amendment,...

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who until recently was one of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken supporters, ripped his State of the Union speech on Tuesday as “the lamest, sappiest, most intentionally tear-jerking SOTU ever.” Coulter live-tweeted her thoughts during the nearly 90-minute speech, in which Trump appealed for unity in Washington amid gridlock over border security funding that threatens to trigger yet another government shutdown. The 57-year-old pundit blasted Trump for barely touching on the wall during his speech.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cautioned President Trump privately this week about the consequences of declaring a national emergency to build his border wall, telling him the move could trigger political blowback and divide the GOP, according to two Republicans with knowledge of the exchange… That would take place under provisions of the National Emergencies Act, which provides that a presidential declaration can be terminated if lawmakers pass a joint resolution to do so. House Democrats would be likely to move swiftly to approve such a resolution, and the law provides that it would come to the Senate floor, where...

The struggle between Trump and the woefully large number of pre-Trump Republicans in the Senate is not really about the true constitutional separation of powers. McConnell and crew are not standing up for the rightful power of the legislative branch as the Framers intended; they are shilling for the Iron Triangle. Freshmen senators seem to find out early how to win the good graces of the liberal media and the permanent bureaucracy. Barely four weeks into their tenure, every new GOP senator—Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Kevin Cramer (N.D.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Martha McSally (Ariz.), Rick Scott (Fla.), and...

Ralph Northam must be the guy in blackface, because the other guy looks EXACTLY like Robert Byrd Ralph Northam is the Democratic governor of Virginia. The media has recently reported that he is one of the two people in this photo from the 1964 yearbook from Eastern Virginia Medical School. Northam has kept silent as to which one is him, and no one in the media has been able to figure it out. (Image sourced from here.)But it’s obvious to me that Northam is the guy in blackface, because the guy in the Ku Klux Klan suit looks exactly like Robert...

We didn’t get to this yesterday but let’s do it now because it’s one of the funnier bits of spin to come out of Trump’s first two years. A few days ago his intel chiefs went before Congress for a hearing and either contradicted or qualified some of his biggest foreign-policy boasts. Is ISIS defeated? Well, they’ve lost almost all of their territory, said Dan Coats and Gina Haspel, but they still command thousands of fighters and we need to stay on top of the problem. Not a great talking point for Trump’s withdrawal from Syria. How about North...

Paul Newman was made to be a movie star. Eyes as blue as wintry lakes. Wavy hair that slowly faded to heirloom silver. Boundless charisma and confident sex appeal. But Paul Newman was more than a movie star. He was an artist. And maybe, since his death in 2008, he’s become a symbol—an avatar of genuine, non-toxic masculinity. We sure could use one now. We’re living in a movement moment, a #MeToo era when even razor-blade commercials wonder if men can’t be better. And lots of men are responding with not very manly tantrums: Better? What do you want from...

President Trump is growing impatient over the lack of progress bipartisan negotiators in Congress have been making in talks over funding a desperately needed wall on the nation’s porous multi-state border with Mexico – and this continuing failure makes another government shutdown increasingly likely this Feb. 15. The GOP-controlled House of Representatives voted 217 to 185 on Dec. 20 for a spending bill with $5.7 billion for the wall. The measure floundered in the Senate and the partial shutdown got underway Dec. 22. The Senate remains in Republican hands but the House is now controlled by Democrats. Trump engaged...

Say what? Just a couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump went on national television to make an offer to trade a three-year extension of the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programs for $5.7 billion in border-wall funding. In an interview with the Daily Caller published today, Trump reversed course and said no concessions would be made on DACA until the Supreme Court took up the challenges to its constitutionality: President Donald Trump cast doubt on speculation that he may be willing to offer up concessions on the DACA program in exchange for border...

Maybe this will convince the left to dial down their meltdown over Howard Schultz’s candidacy from “Chernobyl” levels to a more manageable “Three-Mile Island.”The obvious problem for Scott Rasmussen in polling this was how best to measure support for someone like Schultz. You can’t ask people if they’d vote for him specifically. Most of the public hasn’t the faintest clue who he is yet. So Rasmussen tried a different tack, offering generic alternatives to Trump to try to gauge how broadly receptive voters might be to the idea of a three-way race. Would they even consider directing their vote...

When we had the Senate and the House and the presidency, what did McConnell do on the border issue?” Levin asked. “Nothing.” Levin played an audio clip of McConnell at a presser earlier Tuesday, at which McConnell declared, “I’m for whatever works, which means avoiding a shutdown and avoiding the president feeling he should declare a national emergency.” “Let me tell you something, it’s not really dysfunction,” Levin said. “It’s the speaker of the House and the Democrats in the House: They have decided they don’t want a wall.” “McConnell is as power-hungry as Nancy Pelosi. You need to understand...

Over the past week, it’s fair to say Democrats have seemed, well, overly-caffeinated. Howard Schultz, the billionaire former CEO of Starbucks, has the left apoplectic since floating the idea that he is seriously considering running for President — as an independent. Since embarking on his media tour, Democrats from all corners have come out to torpedo the political newcomer, and self-proclaimed lifelong Democrat. With visions of Ross Perot, Ralph Nader and Jill Stein dancing maniacally in their heads, no doubt, the fear that Schultz will take votes away from their party nominee in 2020 aren’t unfounded. That’s usually the way...