In the run-up to the last elections, Donald Trump’s supporters expressed frustration at social-media companies’ bias against conservatives and by the Biden administration’s efforts to muscle those companies into removing content it didn’t like. MAGA conservatives promised that with Trump’s win, the nation would enter a new era of “free-speech absolutism.”
Yet the nation is now witnessing an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment. Trump wasn’t interested in promoting a principled free-speech ethic — one with which we strongly agree. Instead, it’s interested in promoting open speech for its side while using the government power to crush dissent.
Some flagrant examples jump to mind. After Politico reported that Young Republicans expressed outrageously racist, misogynistic and anti-Semitic sentiments, Vice President JD Vance excused it as just the edgy chat of young activists. But Vance recently urged Americans to call the employers of those who posted improper sentiments about slain activist Charlie Kirk.
That, of course, didn’t involve government actions but it was a sign of hypocrisy given conservative free-speech activists often complain about cancel culture. And the administration recently revoked the visas of visitors because of their online comments about Kirk.
The administration recently pressured Facebook to remove a page that tracks ICE raids. Most harrowing, ICE officers have been attacking and arresting reporters and citizens who video their activities. The administration claims it’s illegal to video agents, but the courts have long disagreed.
The White House has recently been using its power to provide access to favor friendly reporters. The Pentagon also instituted an Orwellian media policy, but fortunately most outlets — even some conservative ones — chose not to sign it. In a free society, the government provides broad media access and doesn’t try to coerce reporters into providing only favorable coverage. The Trump approach is of the kind found in authoritarian nations.
The president recently signed an executive order that “requires a national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts.”
Everyone supports efforts to stop violent criminal conspiracies. But as the libertarian Cato Institute explained, the order implies that “it will treat speech as grounds for law enforcement action if it tends toward ‘justifying’ violence, even though that’s not in fact the standard for loss of First Amendment protection.”
Here’s another chilling example, via CNN: “His lawsuits against media companies and law firms, none of which appear to stand on firm legal ground, have nonetheless been wildly successful in extracting settlement payments and sending a message to firms that would oppose him.” Many media companies are rolling over rather than facing protracted and expensive legal battles.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Pam Bondi has vowed to step up efforts to target “hate speech,” something that even many conservatives found excessive given that the term gives the government vast latitude to prosecute people for speech officials merely don’t like. Trump issued an executive order banning flag burning, even though the courts have viewed this as protected speech.
These and other actions portray an administration that, Cato added, “signals a crackdown directed against speech by one side in the national discussion, Trump’s political adversaries.” These examples add up to an absolute assault on Americans’ free-speech rights.