{"id":247347,"date":"2025-09-22T22:30:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T22:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/247347\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T22:30:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T22:30:24","slug":"trump-manages-a-conservative-makeover-on-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/247347\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump manages a conservative makeover on free speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Since Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination<\/a>, President Donald Trump and his allies have praised the conservative organizer and provocateur as a free speech champion who set a high First Amendment standard for the \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d movement.<\/p>\n

Trump, eulogizing Kirk<\/a> on Sunday in Arizona, identified \u201creason and open debate\u201d as \u201cthe basis of our entire society\u201d and the \u201cinheritance of every free American.\u201d His son, Donald Trump Jr., told the crowd, \u201cWhen people disagree with us, we don\u2019t silence them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet amid mourning for Kirk, the president, members of his administration and a broader universe of conservative supporters have seemed to impose a double standard<\/a> by targeting those who have been critical<\/a> of Kirk and celebrating when employees were disciplined or fired<\/a> over their comments. Trump welcomed Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s suspension<\/a> when his network decided to pull the late night host off the air indefinitely, a decision ABC reversed Monday<\/a> when it said it was reinstating his late night show. The president also has suggested yanking broadcast licenses from networks who, in his thinking, treat him too negatively. <\/p>\n

Trump allies defend the approach, saying they\u2019re replacing \u201ccancel culture\u201d with \u201cconsequence culture.\u201d But others fear a broader crackdown on expression under the guise of preventing violence and fighting \u201chate speech,\u201d a nebulous term that critics say could be used to target a range of political opposition.<\/p>\n

While conservatives have not always been free speech absolutists, including campaigns against those who didn\u2019t condemn the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the latest inconsistencies are stark. They demonstrate just how much Trump has dictated a new identity for the Republican Party as he pushes to muzzle his critics despite promising in his inaugural address<\/a> that \u201cnever again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contradictions have jarred even some traditional Trump allies who have warned against the erosion of First Amendment protections. Podcaster and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said he hoped the administration\u2019s aggressive posturing would not \u201cbring hate speech laws to this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd trust me, if it is, if that does happen, there is never a more justified moment for civil disobedience than that. Ever. And there never will be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Conservatives once claimed they were victims of \u2018cancel culture\u2019<\/p>\n

Under Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, conservatives attacked what they termed \u201ccancel culture\u201d<\/a> \u2014 the idea that political speech drew social, economic, even legal repercussions and that progressives controlled public discourse.<\/p>\n

Kirk became a conservative star in no small part by skewering U.S. colleges and universities<\/a> for corralling controversial speakers in \u201cFirst Amendment zones,\u201d establishing campus \u201csafe spaces\u201d and finger-wagging against \u201cmicroaggressions\u201d and other speech that might offend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Charlie who helped bring online censorship, free speech and cancel culture to the fore of our political debate,\u201d Trump said on Sunday. <\/p>\n

In 2012, as Kirk\u2019s Turning Point USA organization was in its infancy, Jack Phillips was a bakery owner in Colorado when he refused to design a cake for a gay couple\u2019s marriage celebration. A state commission ruled in the couple\u2019s favor after they filed a complaint. Phillips appealed up to the U.S. Supreme Court, triggering vocal support from the right.<\/p>\n

The court decided the case in favor of the baker<\/a> during Trump\u2019s first term, when his administration told the court: \u201cThe government may not enact content-based laws commanding a speaker to engage in protected expression: An artist cannot be forced to paint, a musician cannot be forced to play, and a poet cannot be forced to write.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans challenged speech restrictions under Biden<\/p>\n

Further, Trump backers accused Democrats of punishing Americans for what they did say.<\/p>\n

They applauded civil libertarians who challenged the Biden administration<\/a>, alleging undue federal pressure on social media companies to control content related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Supreme Court sidestepped First Amendment claims in that case and ruled the plaintiffs had no standing to sue.<\/p>\n

After Trump supporters attacked the Capitol<\/a> on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop Biden from becoming president, tech giants reacted swiftly. Twitter, now X, hit Trump with what was then a permanent ban. Reddit and Twitch banned Trump-aligned groups. Google pulled support for Parler, a social media platform for conservatives.<\/p>\n

Many conservatives were incensed at what they considered to be an attack on their First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the idea of free speech enrages you \u2014 the cornerstone of democratic self-government \u2014 then I regret to inform you that you are a fascist,\u201d Stephen Miller, now White House deputy chief of staff, tweeted on April 15, 2022.<\/p>\n

Brendan Carr,<\/a> now chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, wrote on social media in 2023 that \u201ccensorship is the authoritarian\u2019s dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Hate speech\u2019 has become a target of Republicans<\/p>\n

Now Trump and his inner circle<\/a> are going after what they describe as \u201chate speech,\u201d and not just related to statements about Kirk. It also includes targeting universities<\/a> they accuse of promoting antisemitism because of pro-Palestinian protests.<\/p>\n

Since Kirk\u2019s death, the president also has said networks that air criticism of him should lose the FCC licenses that allow them to exist.<\/p>\n

Carr specifically criticized Kimmel for statements on ABC, saying the network should be held accountable and added what sounded like a dark warning coming from the head of the FCC: \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He attempted to explain his comments on Monday, saying at the Concordia Annual Summit in New York that he did not threaten to revoke the licenses of ABC\u2019s local stations if the broadcasting company failed to take action against Kimmel. Instead, he blamed the late night host\u2019s ratings.<\/p>\n

On the \u201cCharlie Kirk Show\u201d after his death, Miller told Vice President JD Vance that the administration would take action against activists on the left that they blame for political violence, in part by referring to conservatives as Nazis or fascists. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will do it in Charlie\u2019s name,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a podcast interview, declared that \u201cthere\u2019s free speech and then there\u2019s hate speech\u201d and the latter \u201cshould be shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bondi later said she was talking about threats of violence.<\/p>\n

Would Kirk approve of Republicans\u2019 speech crackdown?<\/p>\n

Those statements have been circulated online by millions, drawing scorn from the left but praise, likes and shares from parts of Trump\u2019s base.<\/p>\n

Some conservatives nonetheless sounded alarms. <\/p>\n

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said on his latest podcast episode that Carr\u2019s threats to ABC were \u201cdangerous as hell,\u201d because it sets a precedent for when Democrats are in charge again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will silence us,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n

The organization Kirk founded, Turning Point USA<\/a>, has not commented directly on the Trump shift on speech, though his widow and new Turning Point CEO Erika Kirk on Sunday called the First Amendment \u201cthe most human amendment\u201d and said \u201cno assassin will ever stop us for standing up to defend those rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a post on X Monday, Turning Point spokesman Andrew Kolvet accused ABC and its owner<\/a>, the Walt Disney Co., of \u201ccaving\u201d by allowing Kimmel back on the air. He said Nexstar and Sinclair, which own local network affiliates and had threatened to pull Kimmel\u2019s show after his comments, \u201cdo not have to make the same choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Kolvet had held up his close friend as someone who embraced public criticism, even when being lampooned on Comedy Central\u2019s satirical \u201cSouth Park\u201d \u2014 in an episode the network pulled after the assassination.<\/p>\n

Kirk talked at the time about the \u201cEric Cartman\u201d character impersonating him as a \u201cmaster debater.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of goes to show the cultural impact and the resonance that our movement has been able to achieve,\u201d he said. \u201cWe as conservatives need to be able to take a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and James Pollard in New York contributed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Since Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination, President Donald Trump and his allies have praised the conservative organizer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":247348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[7060,5643,119587,11029,11744,51396,411,19719,413,13672,4439,1226,356,69,171,120792,18320,57,118,59,131395,2066,11171,82,8591,50,11335,80,11203,4411,20965,67,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-247347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-alphabet","10":"tag-arizona","11":"tag-assassination-of-charlie-kirk","12":"tag-az-state-wire","13":"tag-barack-obama","14":"tag-brendan-carr","15":"tag-censorship","16":"tag-charlie-kirk","17":"tag-civil-rights","18":"tag-co-state-wire","19":"tag-colorado","20":"tag-conservatism","21":"tag-courts","22":"tag-donald-trump","23":"tag-entertainment","24":"tag-erika-kirk","25":"tag-federal-communications-commission","26":"tag-general-news","27":"tag-human-rights","28":"tag-inc","29":"tag-jack-phillips","30":"tag-jd-vance","31":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","32":"tag-joe-biden","33":"tag-jr","34":"tag-news","35":"tag-pam-bondi","36":"tag-politics","37":"tag-stephen-miller","38":"tag-ted-cruz","39":"tag-tucker-carlson","40":"tag-united-states","41":"tag-unitedstates","42":"tag-us","43":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}