The Trump Administration's Free Speech Betrayal.

The Trump Administration Is Siding With Israel Over Free Speech.

Trump’s Free Speech Crackdown

The Trump administration is now doing everything they can to crack down on protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the U.S. backing of it.

Last week, Trump’s Health and Human Services lead by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. put out an announcement vowing to halt U.S. government funding for Universities that do not crack down on pro-Palestine protests.

The announcement from the Health and Human Services said “Given Columbia’s ongoing inaction in the face of relentless harassment of Jewish students, the Federal Government’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is considering Stop Work Orders for $51.4 million in contracts between Columbia University and the Federal Government.”

Trump further elaborated on this policy in a Truth Social post where he stated that "

All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

While claiming this was about fighting “antisemitism” and “illegal protest”, Trump’s UN ambassador Elise Stefanik admitted it was intended to stop “anti-Israel hate”.

This move from the Trump administration was blatantly unconstitutional and in violation of the First Amendment.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled again and again that the U.S. government cannot condition federal funding on political speech.

This means Trump’s policy of suspending federal funding for Universities that allow pro-Palestine demonstrations is a blatant violation of the First Amendment.

Trump is now taking this assault of free speech farther and actively arresting American residents for protesting Israel.

The Trump administration has now used ICE to arrest Mahmoud Khalil, an American resident with a green card, married to an American citizen, because he had led protests against the genocide in Gaza.

On Truth Social Trump said :

Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it. Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again. If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply.

Contrary to Trump’s claims, they have zero evidence that Khalil has any connection to Hamas at all. As the New York Times noted

Mr. Rubio (Secretary of State Marco Rubio) reposted a Homeland Security Department statement that accused Mr. Khalil of having “led activities aligned to Hamas.” But officials have not accused him of having any contact with the terrorist group, taking direction from it or providing material support to it.

Rather, the administration’s rationale is that the protests that Mr. Khalil played a key part in were antisemitic and created a hostile environment for Jewish students at Columbia, the people with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Rubio’s argument, they said, is that the United States’ foreign policy includes combating antisemitism across the globe and that Mr. Khali’s residency in the nation undermines that policy objective.

There is also zero evidence Khalil has engaged in any criminal activity. In a separate article, The New York Times reported :

Khalil, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, hasn’t been charged with any crime. A dossier on him compiled by Canary Mission, a right-wing group that tracks anti-Zionist campus activists, includes no examples of threatening or violent speech, just demands for divestment from Israel.

In other words, Mahmoud Khalil is a legal American resident who has no connection to Hamas or been accused of any crime and is being arrested and threatened with deportation solely over his protest against America’s funding of a foreign state which has carried out a mass murder campaign that virtually every credible human rights organization has called a genocide.

Brian Hauss, a lawyer from the ACLU, called this crackdown “one of the biggest threats, if not the biggest threats to First Amendment freedoms in 50 years” and “a direct attempt to punish speech because of the viewpoint it espouses”.

Trump Doing The Bidding Of The Israel Lobby

While Trump was running for president, he received 100 million dollars from the pro-Israel mega donor Miriam Addelson.

Because of this, he is effectively carrying out Israel's agenda as president.

The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is clearly a threat to free speech, and is meant to send a chill effect against anyone else who wants to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Trump is attempting to primary one of the only Israel critics in the Republican party.

Trump is now attempting to primary the Northern Kentucky Republican representative Thomas Massie, writing “He should be primaried, and I will lead the charge against him”.

Massie, an anti-war libertarian who hails from the Ron Paul tradition, is the most vocal critic of Israel and American foreign policy in the Middle East in the Republican Party and arguably in the American government.

Last year, Massie effectively blew the whistle on AIPAC’s influence in the Republican party, revealing on Tucker Carlson’s podcast that every Republican member of the House and Senate has an “AIPAC babysitter” that tells them how to vote.

Massie has also opposed U.S. arms sales to Israel tweeting “If Israel insists on destroying civilian targets, let them buy and build their own weapons. American taxpayers should not be funding this”.

Massie is also in opposition to war with Iran. In 2023 he was the only Republican to vote against starvation sanctions on the country.

In his attempt to primary Massie, Trump is effectively doing the bidding of AIPAC, which often primaries critics of Israel and American wars in the Middle East.

Free Speech Hypocrisy.

In February Vice President J.D. Vance gave a speech at the Munich Security Conference where he criticized Europe for their authoritarian attack on free speech.

Vance brought up many real issues such as the lawfare campaign in Germany against playwright CJ Hopkins for his opposition to Covid lockdowns and the judicial coup in Romania against the presidential candidate Calin Georgescu for his opposition to NATO and the Ukraine war.

Ironically, with the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, the Trump administration is now copying a European lawfare campaign against pro-Palestine speech.

British authorities since last year have been arresting and raiding journalists such as Richard Medhurst, Sarah Wilkinson, Richard Barnard and Asa Winstanley for their critical reporting on Israel.

The Austrian government has also aided the British lawfare campaign against journalist Richard Medhurst for his reporting on Palestine.

Switzerland detained journalist Ali Abunimah to prevent him from giving a speech about Gaza.

Germany also threatened Abunimah with arrest to prevent him from attending a conference in the country and has been cracking down on Pro-Palestine protests.

While correctly opposing anti-democratic action in Europe, such as the case against CJ Hopkins and the coup in Romania, the Trump administration is now copying their authoritarian tactics to shut down speech and activism opposed to Israel.

A Threat To Free Speech.

The Trump administration claims again and again that it supports free speech, but in reality, it only supports it for the views it approves of.

One can either support the Trump administration's crackdown on Pro-Palestine speech or support Free Speech but cannot support both.

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