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Trump can't accept bad news, damages First Amendment

By: Rob Miraldi
Guest columnist

..... As August [2025] unfolds in one of the warmest summers on record, a chill is coming from the White House that should give us all pause, because the whiff of authoritarianism hangs over the Capitol - and the erst of the land. and it is not just from the National Guard being put on the streets in Washington, D.C.
..... On August 1, [2025] the federal Labor Department issued a monthly jobs report showing the weakest pace of hiring for any three-month period since the pandemic recession in 2020. Yes, 73,000 jobs were added in July, [2025] but it was far below expectations. Was the Trump economy tanking only seven months after he took office.
..... The president, who cannot accept bad news, even if true, processed to fire Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the longtime commissioner of the Bureau of labor Statistics. he accused her of manipulating the monthly jobs report for 'political purposes,' a tactic virtually impossible in that world of computer-generated numbers.
..... "The Economy is BOOMING under TRUMP'" the president insisted. Of course. Why not just provide it with the statistics suggest. Truth will rise to the top, no?
..... But, instead, the president turned to silencing his critic: You're fired!"
..... Who in the Labor Department will dare to tell the real truth now about the economy? Gagging or punishing people for their speech "chills" everyone form speaking out or form daring to criticize the Great Wizard behind the curtain.

Trump is embarking more boldly on back-door censorship

..... Of course, the CEO of any big company has the right to fire people, even with baseless accusations. But the real issue here is the method in his madness. Back-door censorship like Trump's has the same deleterious effect as cutting off the tongue of the speaker you don't like.
..... I use the word "chill" purposely because when we discuss the First Amendment we think two things: the first that "Congress shall make no law ..." means just that. Laws cannot be passed to stop someone from talking, or tell them things they cannot say.
..... Government cannot, most prominently, block people or organizations from expressing their opinions and points of view.
..... "For it is a central tenet of the First Amendment that the government must remain neutral in the marketplace of ideas, remedied the Supreme Court in a famous 1988 case.
..... The law on speech baning is clear and inviolable.
..... Trump knows 4enough to stay away from that, at lest so far. But what he still wants to do - and not break the law - is control criticism of him, his polices and things that lurk around like the Epstein scandal that has a serious chance of ruining him.
..... Which brings us to the "spirit of the First Amendment." And this is different. Trump consistently violates the spirit of the law, which is this: We'll e an open society, where people feel free to disagree and their government, even when they work for that government.
..... The frames of the Constitution envisioned this moment, fearing that the person in power would silence the opposing political party and the critics. That's what the First amendment protects. You can dissent. you can even say terrible things about the government. But this president doesn't care.
..... Just look around; the attacks on the spirit of free speech come out of this White House faster than you can say Rosie O'Donnell.
..... The day before the jobs report irked the president, some flunky at the Smithsonian, in either an adolescent attempt to please the Boss or under pressure from his minions, removed information from those hallowed historical halls about two impeachments in Trump's first term. Two days later the White House promised to restore them.
..... A violation of the law? Probably not. But it reeks of covering up misdeeds and history, more a kind to the Kremlin that to the 45 words of the First Amendment, which aims for openness, candor an d civil discussions.
..... But if you bury the bodies, perhaps no one will know - or remember. Trump keeps reminding us of what he is capable of. it gets better - or worse.

What can we learn from the Colbert cancellation?

..... Dating back to the early 1960s, late-night comedian like Johnny Carson filled the airwaves with political satire, ripping into Nixon and the break-in, Ronald Reagan's hairdresser, Gerald Ford's bumbling ways on the golf course. And the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was a bonanza.
..... Every president took his lumps. The tradition continues today, as late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon on MBC, Jimmy Kimmel on ABC and Jon Stewart on Comedy Central pummel him nightly. Perhaps it's worse for Trump - because he gives then so much raw materiel and because a comic barb can go viral on social media.
..... Some commentators think more harm is dun to him with the liberty of comedic license than form the mainstream press, with its fetish on facts first. But now comes the multi-layered debacle of Stephen Colbert, the CBS late-night host whose relentless lampooning of MAGA incensed the president.
..... Colbert, on for 11 years, was canceled after pressure form the president as the network - once the beacon of TV news - cut a deal to ensure approval of a big corporate merger which needed Trump approval.
..... Some background: On July 2, [2025] CBS settle a $15 million lawsuit with Trump over the editing of a "60 Minutes" episode. experts I've talked to were flabbergasted, asserting there's little chance Trump could have won. But CBS caved. Why?
..... CBS, owned by Paramount, wanted to merge with media giant Skydance but needed Federal Trade Commission approval. But everything is transactional for Trump: Hand us the head of Colbert and you can have your merger. Simple. and they complied. Edward R. Murrow turned in his gave.
..... Trump is smart lie a fox or cunning like a wolf, but it comes back to the First Amen dent. The spirit of the law has been profoundly violated. Comic satire has great value. Even the Supreme Court noted this when it protected a ribald cartoon that lampooned the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
..... Said the court, "Despite their sometimes caustic nature, from the early cartoon portraying George Washington as an ass down to the presently, graphic depictions and satirical cartoons have played a prominent role in pubic and political debate."
..... And we accept such satire and criticism as just a part of free society.
..... Lyndon Johnson was virtually hounded out of office over his Vietnam policies in the mid-1960s. The cartoonists and TV hosts had a field day with his big ears and his unpopular policies. he was obsessed with coverage of his administration, having three television sets blaring in his office at the same time.
..... Still LBJ understood she spirit of the First Amendment, saying: "It is part of the price of leading this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. None of us should grow so somber or self-important as to deny the value of humor in our levies."
..... Donald Trump is not laughing. his scowl is fouling the spirit of freedom of speech. If he gets ways with back-door censorship, you can be sure he will be knocking at the front door of democracy spoon enough.

..... Rob Miraldi's First Amendment writing has won numerous awards. He taught journalism at the State University of New York for many years. Email: rob.miraldi@gmail.com

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