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Trump wants to undermine our First Amendment rights

By: Sara Pequefio
USA today

..... Republicans may claim to be the party of free speech, but Donald Trump is making it clear that anyone who disagrees with him will be silenced - including college students who protest the war in Gaza.
..... In a Truth Social post on March 4, [2025] the president threatened to pull federal funding form universities that allow "illegal protests' and vowed to arrest, expel and/or deport so-called agitators.
..... A spokesperson for Trump administration did not answer questions about what protests the president is deeming "illegal," although it's hard Not to see this as a reaction to the pro-Palestininan protests we saw last year. [2024]
..... Student protest is vital to American democracy. It is within these young people;s right to speak their mind about issues on and off their campuses. I fear what it means for our First Amendment rights as a country if universities comply with Trump's demands.

Why are Republicans afraid of words and speech?

..... Trump is doing this, he says, because the kids have gotten too radical. Earlier this year, [2025] in an executive order to "combat anti-Semitism," the president threated the student visa of anyone who participated in "pro-jihadist protests."
..... People are allowed to disagree with the federal government's way of doing things. they are allowed to protest wars they don't want, just as they are allowed to protest Trump, gun violence or racism.
..... Republicans have called themselves the party of free speech for years, but they now seem like they won't be happy until everyone who speaks out against them is silenced.
..... That's why The Associated Press lost access to the White House when it refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America," as Trump wanted. It's why the Trump administration is now handpicking who's allowed in the white House press pool. It's why Republicans are being told to cancel voter town halls and running scar instead of answering questions and defending the agenda they'll have you believe is a mandate.
All of these things, along with the student protest announcement, send a message: There will be consequences for speaking out. Trump is clearly afraid of what happens when the protests come for him.
..... If protests weren't effective, then the administration wouldn't be trying to keep them from happening.

History has shown that college students have a voice

..... I have seen firsthand how student protests can lead to change, how a group of young people can shape a university, a town, a nation. After the 2017 "unite the Right" rally on the University of Virgina's campus, calls grew for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to remove :Silent Sam," the Confederate monument that sat at the front of the university's campus.
..... The night before classes began in 2018, silent Sam would be torn from his pedestal, landing face down in the dirt, where he belonged, never to be put up again. In the years since, a patch of grass has filled out the space where this participation trophy used to be, and my alma mater is better for it. that is progress, and it would not have happened without the outcry, the literal blood and sweat of student activists.
..... Student activists were also responsible for change at the University after the denial of tenure to acclaimed New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones in 2021. After a heated protest at the school's broad of trustees meeting, the UNC Black Student Movement put out a list of demands for the university. while not all their demands were met, there were still changes - proof that students can, in fact, shape the way their universities operate.
..... Although UNC-CH is far from perfect, these student protests made our university reckon with its history and present missteps. Now I fear that future generations won't able to have those conversations at all because Republicans are afraid of having them.

US government is officially at war with free speech

..... Free speech advocates quickly voiced their concern about Trump's post.
..... "President Trump needs to stand by his past promise to be a champion for free expression," the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression, said March 4. [2025] "That means doing so for all views - including those his administration dislikes."
..... It is true - if we don't stand for free speech as a country, what do we stand for? Trump;s move to criminalize protest is a move to criminalize our freedom to say what we want. To try to curb conversations on college campuses will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on universities and the nation.
..... But I guess trying to erase thought and conversation through governmental actions is how the Republican Party now protect free speech

..... Follow USA Today columnist Sara Pequeno on X, formerly twitter; @sara_pequeno

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