“This administration uses power against enemies. It uses lawsuits. It uses regulators. It uses funding threats. It uses access gatekeeping. It uses merger pressure. It uses investigations. It uses whatever lever is closest to hand — and if that lever breaks, it grabs another one, and then another, and then another, until it’s grasping at straws or seashells.” — Greg Lukianoff.
On today’s episode, I sit down with Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) to discuss all the ways that Trump is weaponizing government power to chill free speech — from his indictment of Jim Comey to his repeated demand that Disney and ABC fire comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
Lukianoff provides a lengthy catalogue of all of Trump’s attacks here: “Kimmel and Comey: If it looks like an attempt to chill speech by Trump, it probably is.”
Trump’s attacks on speech began in his first term, writes Lukianoff, but “now the pattern has resumed with a vengeance.
The FCC pressure around Kimmel is not a bizarre one-off. It makes another episode in an ongoing constitutional tragedy. So does the pressure on ABC and Disney. So does the Paramount/CBS settlement in the shadow of merger approval. So do the renewed attacks on NPR and PBS. So does Kash Patel’s new $250 million lawsuit against The Atlantic, filed shortly before another one of his defamation suits was tossed.
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Some highlights of my conversation with Greg Lukianoff
The absurdity of the Comey indictment
Brendan Carr: speech hypocrite.
Defining cancel culture.
