Silencing Laughter, Silencing Liberty
Every authoritarian, including Trump, goes after free speech; and Trump's Project 2025 FCC chairman warns, "We are not done."
The Trump-Starmer news conference this morning was exactly what we’ve come to expect: a torrent of lies, bragging, and nonsense from our demented authoritarian president. I recoiled in horror and anger every time he opened his tiny, vile mouth. There it was again: the Biden autopen conspiracy, disappointment in Russia, his supposed role in ending seven wars, Pelosi’s failure to call the National Guard, Democrats as “criminals” for impeaching him, his so-called landslide victories in 2020 and 2024.
And then came the kicker: asked about free speech, Trump served up his newest lie, that Jimmy Kimmel was “fired” for “bad ratings” and “lack of talent,” not for mocking him. 1 Sound familiar? Only two months ago he extorted a network into dumping Stephen Colbert, using the same script about ratings and talent. 2 How in the world did we get to this point
The Promise vs. The Reality
Donald Trump built both campaigns around a pledge to “restore free speech” in America. He signed an executive order on Day One declaring censorship over, and directing agencies to police supposed government “censorship." 3 But instead of restoring anything, his administration is weaponizing the federal government to suppress critics. The Jimmy Kimmel case is the clearest example yet: a comedian mocked the president, and suddenly his show was suspended, affiliates pulled him off the air, and the FCC chair - who wrote Project 2025’s chapter on communications 4- warned that networks could “do it the easy way or the hard way.” 5
From Big Tech to Broadcasts
In the 2010s and early 2020s, the free speech fight wasn’t about comedians or broadcast licenses. It was about online platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Trump raged that these companies were “censoring conservatives,” especially after Twitter flagged his 2020 election tweets. 6 Brendan Carr, then just an FCC commissioner, echoed him on social media: “The government cannot censor speech. Period.” 7 Together they cast themselves as victims of Big Tech censorship, arguing that the state should intervene to restore fairness.
The legal battlefield was Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields online platforms from liability for what users post and allows them to moderate content. 8 But Section 230 was always about hosting billions of user posts.
It never applied to broadcast networks choosing their programming. Still, Trump and Carr blurred the line, insisting that private companies were trampling free speech and that government had to step in.
The Present Case: Jimmy Kimmel
Fast forward to 2025. Jimmy Kimmel aired a monologue about Trump’s bizarre reaction to a question a day after after the murder of Charlie Kirk. A reporter asked:
“My condolences on the loss of your friend Charlie Kirk. May I ask, sir, personally, how are you holding up over the last day and a half, sir?”
Trump responded:
“I think very good. And, by the way, right there you see all the trucks. They just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House … which is something they’ve been trying to get, as you know, for about 150 years, and it’s going to be a beauty.” 9
Kimmel played the clip, then deadpanned: “He’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction.” 10
Trump and Republicans immediately tried to spin Kimmel’s suspension as punishment for calling Kirk’s killer a MAGA supporter. In reality, the pressure campaign centered on Kimmel’s mockery of Trump himself — the ballroom clip that struck a nerve with the president. 11
That monologue got Kimmel suspended. Affiliates pre-empted his show. 12 And FCC Chair Brendan Carr, the same man who once said government “cannot censor speech,” warned Disney/ABC that they could lose their broadcast licenses unless they complied. 13 Trump, meanwhile, gloated that Kimmel was “fired for no talent and bad ratings.” 14
This isn’t a private platform moderating user content. It is the federal government threatening a broadcaster over satire.
The Flip: From Victims to Censors
The irony is staggering. Trump and Carr once insisted that government had to stop private companies from silencing conservatives. They demanded Big Tech be stripped of Section 230 protection because of alleged “bias.” 15 Now, with power in hand, they are the ones silencing critics, using the FCC licensing system as a bludgeon. 16
The bait-and-switch is complete. “Restoring free speech” has become the pretext for censoring speech they don’t like.
Historical Context: Comedians as Test Cases
This isn’t the first time comedians have tested America’s free speech boundaries.
Lenny Bruce was arrested repeatedly in the 1960s for obscenity. 17
George Carlin fought the Supreme Court over his “Seven Words” routine, leading to FCC v. Pacifica (1978). 18
Richard Pryor was censored off NBC in the 1970s for being too raw about race and drugs. 19
Kathy Griffin was investigated by the Secret Service after a provocative Trump photo in 2017. 20
But those cases were either prosecuted under obscenity law or pursued through cultural pressure.
What Trump is doing now is different: it is direct state censorship cloaked in the rhetoric of free speech.
Conclusion: The Authoritarian Playbook
Trump’s “thin skin” around criticism is not new. Obama roasted him at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2011; Trump never attended again. 21 One of his first moves after inauguration this year was seizing control of the Kennedy Center, so he could dictate which artists to honor. 22 He has gone after reporters, 23 revoked security clearances of critics, 24and now forced a late-night host off the air.
What’s new is the scale and brazenness, of a kind usually seen only in authoritarian-led countries. The First Amendment guarantees that the United States government cannot silence speech. Yet, under Trump and Project 2025, that is exactly what’s happening; and the irony is that it’s being done in the name of “restoring free speech.”
As FCC Chair Brendan Carr chillingly put it this week, “We are not done,” signaling that more censorship is coming. 25