The Fall of Free Speech under the Trump Administration
By Liliana Triviski
The United States has always prided itself on its unlimited freedoms, highlighted in the Bill of Rights. All of which should be guaranteed and protected. More specifically, the First Amendment expresses protection of speech and press. However, President Donald Trump has been pushing his presidential powers in many ways.
After returning to the White House, Trump began by issuing many executive orders. One of which included “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship.” This order does not explicitly protect free speech but rather announces the end of the U.S. Government prevention of disinformation (“USA: Trump’s Vision of “Free Speech” Comes at the Expense of Press Freedom”). President Trump is also known to spread disinformation as shown in the number of times he was fact checked live during the 2025 Presidential debate against Kamala Harris. The ABC Debate monitors shared that Trump made 33 false claims throughout the debate (Gold).
The executive order is rooted in the allyship between President Trump and popular tech moguls such as Mark Zucherburg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos. For example, when Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now called “X,” he removed the filters to prevent false information and banned journalists that would criticize him.
Jeff Bezos has also taken steps to limit press. As the owner of The Washington Post, he has announced that the publication would be limiting their opinion selection. He claims that the internet is currently so vast that The Post does not need to cover anything other than “personal liberties and free markets” (Washington Post staff). This is a restriction and blatantly opposes the concept of free press. This action points at the idea that it is a favor towards Donald Trump, who is able to restrict the activity of Amazon (Schaffer).
President Trump has also made moves to censor the press within the White House. They have recently announced that they will be choosing which media outlets will be present in the press pool. This move is a direct attack on the First Amendment. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, announced that this decision was made in order to invite in a different approach to media outlets, encouraging streaming services and podcasts to replace the reporters. This deliberate choosing of who covers the Trump administration will only increase the spread of disinformation (Grynbaum).
These various moves as a result of the new Trump administration is only the beginning. The initial attacks on free speech and press begin to push the traditional presidential powers and can be worsened. Democracy as a whole is at risk.
Sources:
Gold, Hadas. “ABC Debate Moderators Live Fact-Checked Trump’s False Claims from the Stage.” CNN, CNN, 11 Sept. 2024, www.cnn.com/2024/09/11/media/abc-moderators-debate-fact-check-trump-harris-false-claims/index.html.
Grynbaum, Michael M. “White House Moves to Pick the Pool Reporters Who Cover Trump.” The New York Times, 25 Feb. 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/business/media/trump-white-house-press.html.
Schaffer, Michael. “Dying in Darkness: Jeff Bezos Turns out the Lights in the Washington Post’s Opinion Section - POLITICO.” POLITICO, Politico, 26 Feb. 2025, www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/26/jeff-bezos-washington-post-opinion-00206330. Accessed 27 Feb. 2025.
Staff, Washington Post. “Post Owner Bezos Announces Shift in Opinions Section; Shipley to Leave.” Washington Post, The Washington Post, 26 Feb. 2025, www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2025/02/26/washington-post-bezos-opinions-section/. Accessed 27 Feb. 2025.
“USA: Trump’s Vision of “Free Speech” Comes at the Expense of Press Freedom.” Rsf.org, 23 Jan. 2025, rsf.org/en/usa-trump-s-vision-free-speech-comes-expense-press-freedom.
Image Source:
https://www.aclu.org/trump-on-surveillance-protest-and-free-speech