The Trump administration has done yeoman’s work in dismantling much of the federal government funded and directed censorship operations put in place since 2020. However, many administration supporters (some erstwhile) are expressing fears that Trump is implementing a new form of censorship. Worse, in spite of all the “America first” rhetoric this censorship is done at the behest of a foreign country.
Trump is rightfully cutting back federal funding to the socialist higher education scam. However, some of the conditions set for maintaining funding in effect amount to censorship. The administration is requiring avowals to censor speech concerning Israel as condition for continued funding. The censorious nature of the operation is obscured by its implementers wrapping themselves in the anti-‘antisemitism’ flag. But, the speech they are seeking to suppress and control is not about Semites or Jews. It is about a nation, the state of Israel, and its unpopular and ugly war policies and conduct.
The Attorney General has announced investigations into several universities for failure to crack down on speech criticizing Israel, couching it as a fight against “antisemitism.” A number of prominent critics of Israel’s war conduct have been targeted for immediate deportation for no other apparent reason than speaking against Israel’s military actions against civilians.
Most recently the administration announced the withholding of disaster relief funds from states that allow boycotts of Israeli companies, see Trump’s Base Fragments Further. The US Supreme Court has long held that boycott is a form of speech, expression, assembly and petition all protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution, see NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886 (1982). The administration apparently reeled this one back only after outrage on X went mega viral. In doing so, the Department of Homeland Security doubled down on its commitment to combat lawful boycotts: “DHS will enforce all anti-discrimination laws and policies, including as it relates to the BDS movement, which is expressly grounded in antisemitism. Those who engage in racial discrimination should not receive a single dollar of federal funding.”
Trump’s deference and allegiance to Bibi Netanyahu has been taken to almost comically absurd proportions. Several high administration officials are making embarrassing public acts of supplication to Israel. Once considered a straight shooter, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino was recently asked in an interview about his official duties, “what is the cause that really is closest to his heart?” He replied, “Israel. Defense of Israel.” Quite an odd answer for a DOMESTIC law enforcement official. The FBI should have zero regard or loyalty to any foreign country. To make matters worse his boss, FBI Director Kash Patel piled on, saying “America will prioritize Israel, and we stand by our number one ally.” Perhaps the US ambassador to Israel might get away with a statement slightly less extreme, but not the chief of the top DOMESTIC law enforcement agency.
Such concerns are intensified by Trump’s recent 180 degree flipflop shift on the Ukraine war. After two years of promising to end it before day one of his Presidency, he has since announced falling into line with Biden’s obsequious compliance to the will of the Military Industrial Complex. He has gone as far as publicly sucking up to the senate’s premiere Neo Con Lindsey Graham, resuming US funding of the war, and repositioning nuclear submarines over defensive statements made by a former Russian President.
Should Trump not come to his senses and reverse this censorious and oddly compliant course of conduct, not only will “America First” become an empty phrase, but people will begin to wonder, and perhaps investigate, what hold Israel and/or the Military Industrial Complex might have on him that would explain his radical shift of behavior.
Wild times. We best stay alert to the winds of change.
Moving On Up a Little Higher 