Free Republic

House Republicans passed their giant tax and budget bill Thursday, a political triumph for Speaker Mike Johnson despite its policy disappointments. The House bill had to pass because the alternative was a GOP failure to govern, but the Senate now has a chance to make it better. The House version does include some policy gains, notably preventing a $4.5 trillion tax increase next year if President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts expire. Lower tax rates for individuals are made permanent. The measure would restore full expensing, which encourages business investment, albeit only through 2029. The bill also doesn’t disturb the 21%...

In a reversal, President Trump appears to have backed off joining a European push for new sanctions on Russia, seemingly eager to move on to doing business deals with it. For months, President Trump has been threatening to simply walk away from the frustrating negotiations for a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine. After a phone call on Monday between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, that appears to be exactly what the American president is doing. The deeper question now is whether he is also abandoning America’s three-year-long project to support Ukraine, a nascent democracy that he...

The European Union has stepped in to provide Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty an infusion of millions of dollars to keep functioning as the international broadcaster battles the Trump administration to release funds Congress has already designated for it. "We are grateful for the emergency funding to help keep Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty afloat," the network's president, Steve Capus, said in a statement from Brussels, where he has been meeting with European officials. "Radio Liberty's survival remains at risk as long as these funds are withheld," Capus said, referring to $75 million held back by the Trump administration. Radio Free Europe...

After holding the tax bill hostage, House Republicans from high-tax states have extorted an enormous increase in the state-and-local tax deduction—not that they will get much credit for it. Unlike the bill’s pro-growth provisions, this giveaway to the affluent will have no economic payoff and subsidizes profligate Democratic-run states. Speaker Mike Johnson late Tuesday greased the wheels for the reconciliation bill’s passage by cutting a deal with Republicans from New York, New Jersey and California to raise the state-and-local deduction to $40,000 with a 1% annual inflation adjustment over 10 years. The deduction would be phased out starting at $500,000...

A constitutional law expert says Trump should do what Biden did: waive executive privilege to release Biden White House records. Now that Jake Tapper and crew have had their epiphany about the meat puppet that periodically occupied the White House for the previous four years, it’s long past time congress find out who knew what and when about President Joe Biden’s addled mind. The Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee is preparing to hold hearings into what is shaping up to be the worst cover-up in U.S. presidential history. Word this week that Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive...

Racism doesn’t become justice when roles reverse—bigotry dressed as victimhood still poisons the well of a multiracial democracy. One reason why the public turned on DEI was its insistence that roughly 70 percent of the country was stereotyped as victimizers by virtue of their skin color. In contrast, the other “diverse” 30 percent were de facto considered the victimized. In such absurd binaries, the left returned to the old “one-drop” rule of the antebellum South, suggesting that anyone with any nonwhite ancestry was a minority victim. And once that Marxist-inspired dichotomy was institutionalized, a corollary was established that the self-declared...

Canadian Prime Minister Markey Carney has said that "high level" talks are taking place with the US about joining its proposed "Golden Dome" missile defence system, aimed at countering futuristic threats. US President Donald Trump unveiled the plan for the new missile defence system on Tuesday, announcing an initial total cost of $25bn (£18.7bn). He said Canada was interested in joining the project. There are doubts from experts on how the US would deliver a comprehensive system and it is unclear how Canada would participate or how much it would pay. "It's something that we are looking at and something...

Cyril Ramaphosa must have prepped for an awkward meeting. After all, just a week earlier the Trump administration chartered a Boeing 767 to fly 59 Afrikaner farmers out of his country so they could claim refugee status amid allegations that the white population faced a genocide. But he may not have reckoned with Donald Trump’s sense of theatre. “Turn the lights down and just put this on,” he directed his aides in the Oval Office. “It’s right behind you.” Ministers, reporters, two of the greatest golfers of all time, and the world’s richest man craned their necks to watch as...

I am a huge John Wayne fan. I grew up watching his movies, soaking in the grit, strength, and unspoken code he brought to every role. He didn’t just play heroes; he defined what it meant to be a man in a world that respected strength paired with decency. There was a time in America when the question didn’t need asking. Masculinity was a virtue, not a liability. It meant something. Not an identity crisis waiting to happen, but a foundation for society: men who worked hard, stood up straight, took care of their families, and didn’t ask for applause....

As President Donald Trump attempts to muscle his GOP agenda through a narrow House majority, Rep. Chip Roy is perhaps the most important holdout to win over. He may also be the toughest. Speaker Mike Johnson and his team have been confident they can pass Trump’s massive reconciliation bill, because they don’t believe any Republican will want to stand in the way and face Trump’s wrath. But Roy, the unapologetic fiscal hawk, is the rare GOP lawmaker willing to publicly challenge the president. He has already survived multiple calls by his own party to oust him — including from Trump...

Donald Trump used videos of a Marxist firebrand politician to highlight the alleged persecution of white farmers in South Africa as the country’s president sat beside him. The US president dimmed the lights at an Oval Office meeting to play clips of Julius Malema, known for his anti-white rhetoric, who was this month blocked from visiting Britain. Mr Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party won just under 10 per cent of the vote at last year’s general election with a platform feeding on the disillusionment of many young black voters who have not seen their lives improve, despite the abolition...

A San Francisco couple are suing their landlord and property managers after a bizarre fire ripped through their Lower Nob Hill apartment building that allegedly started when a neighbor’s guest tried to burn a tick off a dog, setting the animal ablaze.

In a reversal, President Trump appears to have backed off joining a European push for new sanctions on Russia, seemingly eager to move on to doing business deals with it.For months, President Trump has been threatening to simply walk away from the frustrating negotiations for a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.After a phone call on Monday between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, that appears to be exactly what the American president is doing. The deeper question now is whether he is also abandoning America’s three-year-long project to support Ukraine, a nascent democracy that he has frequently...

WASHINGTON — For generations, official American documents have been meticulously preserved and protected — from the era of quills and parchment to boxes of paper to the cloud, safeguarding snapshots of the government and the nation for posterity. Now, the Trump administration has sought to expand the executive branch’s power to shield from public view key administration initiatives. Officials have used apps like Signal that can auto-delete messages containing sensitive information rather than retaining them for record-keeping. And they have shaken up the National Archives leadership. To historians and archivists, it points to the possibility that President Trump will leave...

I am so bored with being lied to. I am even bored with the new lies being told to cover the old lies: Now It Can Be Told!!! The Behind-the-Scenes Inside Story of How I Lied to You for the Last Half-Decade by Jake Tapper and Wossname. Exclusive Excerpt! The longtime granite-jawed Deputy Assistant Under-Counselor to the President for Running the Country peered thoughtfully through the Oval Office window to the vast city beyond before loosening his cocktail dress and kicking off his three-inch heels. I was stunned by the evident anguish on his face as he turned to me...

WASHINGTON (AP) — For months, American consumers and businesses have been hearing that President Trump’s massive import taxes – tariffs – would drive up prices and hurt the U.S. economy. But the latest economic reports don’t match the doom and gloom: Inflation actually eased last month, and hiring was solid in April. For now, the disconnect has businesses and consumers struggling to reconcile what they were told to expect, what the numbers say and what they are seeing on the ground. Trump and his supporters are quick to point out that the trade wars of his first term didn’t translate...

SACRAMENTO — When the top Democratic candidates for governor took the stage at a labor forum last week, the digs at Gov. Gavin Newsom were subtle. The message, however, was clear. Newsom’s home stretch as California governor may be a bumpy ride.Newsom hopes to end his time as governor in an air of accomplishment and acclaim, which would elevate his political legacy and prospects in a potential presidential run. But the Democrats running to replace him have a much different agenda.“Lots of voters think things are not going well in California right now. So if you’re running for governor, you...

The administration is not only allowing more greenhouse gases. It is undermining the nation’s ability to understand and respond to a hotter planet.When the Trump administration declared two weeks ago that it would largely disregard the economic cost of climate change as it sets policies and regulations, it was just the latest step in a multipronged effort to erase global warming from the American agenda.But President Trump is doing more than just turning a blind eye to the fact that the planet is growing hotter. He is weakening the country’s capacity to understand global warming and to prepare for its...

Administration officials and members of billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service — aided by local and federal law enforcement agencies — seized the institute’s privately owned headquarters in March and summarily removed its leaders.“The President’s efforts here to take over an organization outside of those bounds, contrary to statute established by Congress and by acts of force and threat using local and federal law enforcement officers, represented a gross usurpation of power and a way of conducting government affairs that unnecessarily traumatized the committed leadership and employees of USIP, who deserved better,” Howell wrote in her 102-page opinion.The judge said...

A STEYN I-TOLD-YOU-SO MOMENT: As I have written often, the consistent message from the permanent ruling class around the west is that nothing will be permitted to change on anything that matters. Of the two principal popular revolts of almost a decade ago - the Trump election and the Brexit vote - the jury is still out on Trump 47 (America's last chance), but Brexit is dead. A theme of my book The Prisoner of Windsor is that there is no Brexit. It never happened - or, perhaps more precisely, it was never permitted to happen. And so, as the...