{"id":1056169,"date":"2025-09-22T16:41:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T20:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1056169"},"modified":"2025-09-23T16:12:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T20:12:38","slug":"what-they-are-saying-even-trumps-own-supporters-dont-like-his-war-on-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/what-they-are-saying-even-trumps-own-supporters-dont-like-his-war-on-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"What They Are Saying: Even Trump\u2019s Own Supporters Don\u2019t Like His War on Free Speech\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Donald Trump and his loyalists in the White House are waging a war on free speech and threatening<\/a> to revoke broadcast licenses for any networks that criticize him. Both he and his Attorney General Pam Bondi went so far as to say that the administration should prosecute anyone engaging in \u201chate speech\u201d \u2014 which to him means anyone even slightly critical of him and his administration. Plain and simple, that\u2019s a violation of the First Amendment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s Department of Defense even went so far as to impose<\/a> new restrictions on reporters that would punish them for reporting certain new information without DoD permission. It is but another example in a long line of constitutional violations and attacks on a free press. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s clear that Trump can\u2019t handle even the slightest criticism. Just last night at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, instead of bringing the country together, Trump said<\/a>, \u201cI hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even his own supporters are criticizing Trump\u2019s attempt to stomp on free speech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some statements about Trump\u2019s latest attack on free speech: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Dillon:<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>\u201cAnyone who cares about the ability to speak freely for a living should be disturbed by this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Schulz<\/strong><\/a>: <\/strong>\u201cRight: Cancel Culture is wrong! Unless you cancel the shows of our political opponents, then we\u2019ll celebrate it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Mac:<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>\u201cIf there was a club for Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s haters, I\u2019d be in it. But I don\u2019t agree with him being taken off air after pressure for FCC. That being said, I\u2019m not surprised. Trump has not forgotten about being deplatformed himself and wants revenge.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Rand Paul<\/strong><\/a>:<\/strong> \u201cAbsolutely inappropriate. Brendan Carr has got no business weighing in on this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Markwayne Mullin<\/strong><\/a>: <\/strong>\u201cFree speech is free speech. Hateful speech is also free speech. But when it leads to violence, now that\u2019s a crossover,\u201d Mullin said. \u201cAnd people should be held accountable for that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Ted Cruz:<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>\u201cIf the government gets in the business of saying, \u2018We don\u2019t like what you the media have said, we\u2019re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don\u2019t say what we like,\u2019 that will end up bad for conservatives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Thomas Massie<\/strong><\/a>: <\/strong>\u201cI think it\u2019s antithetical to the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Shapiro:<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>\u201cBut I do not want the FCC in the business of telling local affiliates that their licenses will be removed if they broadcast material that the FCC deems to be false.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles C. W. Cooke:<\/strong><\/a> \u201c<\/strong>This is even worse than what Bondi said\u2014not least because Trump is the president and Bondi is not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tucker Carlson:<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>\u201cYou hope that Charlie Kirk\u2019s death won\u2019t be used by a group we now call bad actors to create a society that was the opposite of the one he worked to build. You hope that. You hope that a year from now, the turmoil we\u2019re seeing in the aftermath of his murder won\u2019t be leveraged to bring hate speech laws to this country. And 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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Megyn Kelly:<\/strong><\/a> \u201cHate speech is not prosecutable in America (which is good). Pam Bondi knows this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Walsh:<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>\u201cGet rid of her. Today. This is insane. Conservatives have fought for decades for the right to refuse service to anyone. We won that fight. Now Pam Bondi wants to roll it all back for no reason. The employee who didn\u2019t print the flyer was already fired by his employer. This stuff is being handled successfully through free speech and free markets. This is totally gratuitous and pointless. We need the AG focused on bringing down the left wing terror cells, not prosecuting Office Depot for God\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rod Dreher:<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>\u201cWhat the hell is he talking about? This is not right. It is okay to criticize the President of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin Amash:<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>\u201cPam Bondi is now doubling down by conflating \u2018hate speech\u2019 with true threats and actual crimes and other acts that aren\u2019t crimes\u2014packaging it all under the label \u2018violent rhetoric.\u2019 She is deeply confused and unfit to be the attorney general.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump and his loyalists in the White House are waging a war on free speech and threatening to revoke broadcast licenses for any networks that criticize him. Both he and his Attorney General Pam Bondi went so far as to say that the administration should prosecute anyone engaging in \u201chate speech\u201d \u2014 which to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1056169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat They Are Saying: Even Trump\u2019s Own Supporters Don\u2019t Like His War on Free Speech\u00a0 - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/what-they-are-saying-even-trumps-own-supporters-dont-like-his-war-on-free-speech\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-22T20:41:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-23T20:12:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1101\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/what-they-are-saying-even-trumps-own-supporters-dont-like-his-war-on-free-speech\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/what-they-are-saying-even-trumps-own-supporters-dont-like-his-war-on-free-speech\/\",\"name\":\"What They Are Saying: Even Trump\u2019s Own Supporters Don\u2019t Like His War on Free Speech\u00a0 - 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