Republicans may claim to be the party of free speech, but Donald Trump is making it clear that anyone who disagrees with him will be silenced – including college students who protest the war in Gaza.
In a Truth Social post Tuesday, the president threatened to pull federal funding from universities that allow “illegal protests,” and vowed to arrest, expel and/or deport so-called agitators.
A spokesperson for the Trump administration did not answer questions about what protests the president is deeming “illegal,” although it’s hard not to see this as a reaction to the pro-Palestinian protests we saw last year.
Student protest is vital to American democracy. It is within these young people’s right to speak their mind about issues on and off their campuses. I fear what it means for our First Amendment rights as a country if universities comply with Trump’s demands.
Trump is doing this, he says, because the kids have gotten too radical. Earlier this year, in an executive order to “combat anti-Semitism,” the president threatened the student visas of anyone who participated in “pro-jihadist protests.”
People are allowed to disagree with the federal government’s way of doing things. They are allowed to protest wars they don’t want, just as they are allowed to protest Trump, gun violence or racism.
While Republicans have called themselves the party of free speech for years, they now seem like they won’t be happy until everyone who speaks out against them is silenced.
That’s why the Associated Press lost access to the White House when it refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” like Trump wanted. It’s why the Trump administration is now handpicking who’s allowed in the White House press pool. It’s why Republicans are being told to cancel voter town halls and running scared instead of answering questions and defending the agenda they’ll have you believe is a mandate.