Free speech for Americans!

"INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS"

To greet all Americans on what should be a somber holiday, the President posted the following on Memorial Day morning:

Ranting as usual, this post is an essential part of Donald Trump’s character. And that is part of the official position of this administration as well.

Yesterday Reuters reported the Trump administration has ordered all new visa appointments for students and exchange visitors to stop as the State Department is scoping ways to better screen applicants’ social media presence.

So far more than 4700 foreign students have had their visas revoked under the second Trump administration. More than 50% (~609K) of all international students originate in India or China, but that is not the obvious focus of this policy. Recent events strongly suggest any foreign student who posted anything online resembling support for Palestine or critiquing Israel’s conduct in Gaza will be treated as pro-Hamas, regardless of that student’s actual intent, and will be denied entry into any American university.

If universities were a hotbed for the anti-war movement during the late 1960s/early 1970s, the Trump administration is doing everything in its power to neuter their potential power as the war in Gaza seemingly has no end in sight.

Meanwhile, the broader MAGA movement intends to ensure Americans can never be silenced abroad. Today, an official announcement from the US Secretary of State:

I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States. It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on U.S. citizens or U.S. residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on U.S. soil. It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States. We will not tolerate encroachments upon American sovereignty, especially when such encroachments undermine the exercise of our fundamental right to free speech.

This visa restriction policy is pursuant to Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes the Secretary of State to render inadmissible any alien whose entry into the Unites States “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” Certain family members may also be covered by these restrictions.

The very first Amendment to America’s beloved Constitution enshrines what may be Americans’ most cherished value, the right to speak freely. The key sentence in the announcement above however addresses foreign officials (likely directly referring to European Union officials) who have censored U.S. tech companies and U.S. citizens. If you notice, the fine print states “Certain family members may also be covered by these restrictions.” Just in case punishing the foreign official alone was not enough.

When Vice President JD Vance spoke at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris February 2025, he specifically stated:

The Trump Administration will ensure that AI systems developed in America are free from ideological bias and never restrict our citizens' right to free speech.

We can trust our people to think, to consume information, to develop their own ideas, and to debate with one another in the open marketplace of ideas.

The implication is AI safety, discussed years ago at that summit, is no longer the top concern despite that very particular concern having only exploded onto every facet of American life.

Looking back only 4 months ago when Trump was inaugurated, on day 1 he signed an Executive Order to restore freedom of speech and end federal censorship:

Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans' speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve. Under the guise of combatting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government's preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.

Having read the entire First Amendment multiple times, it is jarring to see how this administration has weaponized a bedrock democratic value.

In the same Constitutional amendment, the federal government must never curb the freedom of the press, prohibit citizens from assembling or deny any the ability to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Yet the American president can blatantly lie online spreading disinformation, bar a highly respected news organization from attending White House briefings because they did not “correctly” refer to the Gulf south of the border and has repeatedly denied due process to those ensnared by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

And now a generation of new students who would come to university to broaden their minds and life opportunities will have their social media posts, where their entire lives may have been documented, thoroughly searched in case they “misspoke.”