Trump manages a conservative makeover on free speech

WASHINGTON (AP) — Since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, 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 “Make America Great Again” movement.

Trump, eulogizing Kirk on Sunday in Arizona, identified “reason and open debate” as “the basis of our entire society” and the “inheritance of every free American.” His son, Donald Trump Jr., told the crowd, “When people disagree with us, we don’t silence them.”

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 by targeting those who have been critical of Kirk and celebrating when employees were disciplined or fired over their comments. Trump welcomed Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension when his network decided to pull the late night host off the air. The president also has suggested yanking broadcast licenses from networks who, in his thinking, treat him too negatively.

Trump allies defend the approach, saying they’re replacing “cancel culture” with “consequence culture.” But others fear a broader crackdown on expression under the guise of preventing violence and fighting “hate speech,” a nebulous term that critics say could be used to target a range of political opposition.

While conservatives have not always been free speech absolutists, including campaigns against those who didn’t 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 that “never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents.”

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’s aggressive posturing would not “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,” he said.

Conservatives once claimed they were victims of ‘cancel culture’

Under Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, conservatives attacked what they termed “cancel culture” — the idea that political speech drew social, economic, even legal repercussions and that progressives controlled public discourse.

Kirk became a conservative star in no small part by skewering U.S. colleges and universities for corralling controversial speakers in “First Amendment zones,” establishing campus “safe spaces” and finger-wagging against “microaggressions” and other speech that might offend.

“It was Charlie who helped bring online censorship, free speech and cancel culture to the fore of our political debate,” Trump said on Sunday.

In 2012, as Kirk’s 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’s marriage celebration. A state commission ruled in the couple’s favor after they filed a complaint. Phillips appealed up to the U.S. Supreme Court, triggering vocal support from the right.

The court decided the case in favor of the baker during Trump’s first term, when his administration told the court: “The 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.”

Republicans challenged speech restrictions under Biden

Further, Trump backers accused Democrats of punishing Americans for what they did say.

They applauded civil libertarians who challenged the Biden administration, 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.

After Trump supporters attacked the Capitol 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.

Many conservatives were incensed at what they considered to be an attack on their First Amendment rights.

“If the idea of free speech enrages you — the cornerstone of democratic self-government — then I regret to inform you that you are a fascist,” Stephen Miller, now White House deputy chief of staff, tweeted on April 15, 2022.

Brendan Carr, now chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, wrote on social media in 2023 that “censorship is the authoritarian’s dream.”

‘Hate speech’ has become a target of Republicans

Now Trump and his inner circle are going after what they describe as “hate speech,” and not just related to statements about Kirk. It also includes targeting universities they accuse of promoting antisemitism because of pro-Palestinian protests.

Since Kirk’s death, the president also has said networks that air criticism of him should lose the FCC licenses that allow them to exist.

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: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said.

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’s local stations if the broadcasting company failed to take action against Kimmel. Instead, he blamed the late night host’s indefinite suspension on his ratings.

On the “Charlie Kirk Show” 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.

“We will do it in Charlie’s name,” Miller said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a podcast interview, declared that “there’s free speech and then there’s hate speech” and the latter “should be shut down.”

Bondi later said she was talking about threats of violence.

Would Kirk approve of Republicans’ speech crackdown?

Those statements have been circulated online by millions, drawing scorn from the left but praise, likes and shares from parts of Trump’s base.

Some conservatives nonetheless sounded alarms.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said on his latest podcast episode that Carr’s threats to ABC were “dangerous as hell,” because it sets a precedent for when Democrats are in charge again.

“They will silence us,” Cruz said.

The organization Kirk founded, Turning Point USA, 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 “the most human amendment” and said “no assassin will ever stop us for standing up to defend those rights.”

Andrew Kolvert, who produced the “Charlie Kirk Show,” has held up his close friend as someone who embraced public criticism, even when being lampooned on Comedy Central’s satirical “South Park” — in an episode the network pulled after the assassination.

Kirk talked at the time about the “Eric Cartman” character impersonating him as a “master debater.”

“It kind of goes to show the cultural impact and the resonance that our movement has been able to achieve,” he said. “We as conservatives need to be able to take a joke.”

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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and James Pollard in New York contributed.