Over four years ago, I began writing in response to disturbing problems in American Society. At the time, I wrote under a pseudonym as censorship and cancel culture during early/mid COVID were alive and well. One of the first stories I submitted was to CD Media in 2021 – ‘An Open Letter to Jimmy Kimmel From a Doctor Who Treats COVID Patients Every Day.’ The letter was in response to Kimmel’s 8 September 2021 show when he mocked the deaths of unvaccinated COVID patients and said, “Vaccinated person having a heart attack? Yes, come right on in, we’ll take care of you. Unvaccinated guy who gobbled horse goo? Rest in peace, wheezy.” Not once in my pointed letter did I even suggest censorship or professional sanctions against Kimmel or his network. I believe then and now in freedom of speech.

“I wholly disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Voltaire

For several years, the former administration and mass media coordinated with media, social media companies, and key government officials to control messaging and to intimidate those that moved the needle in any significant way in the public eye. They attempted to form the Disinformation Government Board to begin government oversight of free speech but that was fortunately quickly dissolved after Congressional scrutiny from the opposition party. CD Media was subjected to many sanctions and threats. Many were afraid to speak about COVID, DEI, and other vital issues for fear of personal and professional cancel culture.

On January 20, 2025, now President Trump gave his inauguration speech. Some key excerpts follow:

“Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.”

“As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair.”

“My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all of these many betrayals that have taken place and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy, and, indeed, their freedom.”

“Our liberties and our nation’s glorious destiny will no longer be denied.”

“After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I also will sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America. (Applause.)”

“Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents — something I know something about. (Laughter.) We will not allow that to happen. It will not happen again.”¹

On the same day, Trump signed an Executive Order called Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. Key excerpts follow:

“Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve. Under the guise of combatting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.”²

The new administration’s actions seemed to have defied their own orders. The following is but a few examples of what can be easily construed as authoritarianism contrary to first amendment rights.

In February 2025, the White House barred AP News from entering. There was no explanation given.³

In the same month, the Pentagon barred NBC News, the New York Times, and Politico from having a media space. ⁴ Note these four entities frequently criticize Trump. At the same time, the Pentagon offered space for Breitbart, OAN, and The Post, 3 agencies with widely recognized right bias (ie Trump friendly).⁵

In June 2025, a leaked intel report indicated that the Iran bombing may not have been as effective as Trump boasted repeatedly with the word “OBLIBERATED!”

“And the president vowed legal action against Democratic members of Congress and journalists he blamed for publishing parts of a U.S. intelligence assessment of the effects of the three attacks. The administration spent the past week decrying it as one-sided, incomplete, and aimed at producing a narrative critical of the Trump White House.”⁶

On July 12, 2025, Trump posted on Truth Social. “In a July 12 Truth Social post, Trump said [Rosie] O’Donnell’s U.S. citizenship “is not in the best interests of our Great Country” and he called her a “Threat to Humanity.””⁷ Terms like ‘threats to humanity’ and ‘enemy of the state’ are terms cited as unacceptable by Trump’s administration in the wake of the Kirk assassination, but he himself uses them repeatedly during interviews and on social media with no correction or condemnation from his officials. In the same month Trump also threatened to revoke the citizenships of Elon Musk and Zohran Mamdani (NYC mayor candidate) because they opposed Trump’s ideology.

He also repeatedly uses hateful and often profane rhetoric towards Americans and elected officials. He even has advocated violence. In one example, in 2016 at a rally he told the crowd to rough up a heckler – “Just knock the hell – I promise you I will pay the legal fees.”

In July 2025, when Stephen Colbert’s show was not renewed, the President said the following:

“"I absolutely love that Colbert got fired," Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday night. "His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show."⁸ It seems Trump was showing his hand that Kimmel would be his next target to silence.

In September, the free speech issue became more heightened. In early September, Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade joked about using lethal injection (genocide) to get rid of the homeless. He apologized. He got no condemnation from the GOP, Trump’s administration, the FCC, or even his own Fox network. At the same time, many left leaning news personalities were being fired for saying far less controversial things. The message is clear that it is ok for Fox News reporters to joke about murder and use hate speech without fear of government scrutiny because they back the President in power.

The recent assassination has escalated tensions nationally and also made the administration and its party’s interpretation of the First Amendment very clear. This is incredibly dangerous because it seems to weaponize the government against competing thoughts by using a crisis and the broad moniker of ‘hate speech.’ This is ironic and worrisome as this is the exact thing the GOP gaslighted during the last administration. 2 wrongs don’t make a right and a party cannot declare a crisis to silence half the country at their leisure and only enforce offenders that are not on the same ideological wavelength as the President.

Fox news’ Jesse Watters said the following after the Kirk assassination:

“We’re sick, we’re sad, we’re angry, and we’re resolute, and we’re going to avenge Charlie’s death in the way Charlie would want it to be avenged,” he said. “Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us! And what are we gonna do about it? How much political violence are we going to tolerate?”⁹

Carr, Fox News, and the GOP did not condemn Watters’ inflammatory and inciting comment. All three were, however, on the hunt to condemn anything they construed as ‘hate’ from non-MAGA citizens. Remember that the ‘original’ modern hate crime, the one that the 2009 hate crime bill is named after, was the beating, burning, and crucifixion death of Matthew Sheppard by two men that hated gays (right on left violence). Political violence and hate speech has been perpetrated on both sides for decades but the current federal government is seemingly seizing on the latest crisis to paint only one political side as evil as a justification for censorship because, in the words of Fox News’ own Jesse Watters, we are at “war.”

On 15 September 2025, a reporter asked President Trump if Americans should still be protected by the First Amendment. He replied that he’s “not so sure.”¹⁰ On 17 September 2025, at Trump was asked by a reporter about AG Pam Bondi’s crackdown on ‘hate speech’

“A lot of your allies say hate speech is free speech,” Mr Karl said, to which Mr Trump responded: “She’d probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. It’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart.”¹¹

Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC/Disney in September 2025. FCC chairman Brendan Carr made aggressive statements towards Kimmel’s speech during his televised show saying he was “misleading” the American public. This is ironic because the President is famous for hyperbole and misleading comments to influence public knowledge and opinion. 0% crime in DC after the national guard was sent it. No inflation in 2025. Epstein flip flopping. Etc. Carr commented that "This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr told right-wing commentator Benny Johnson that day. "These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead." Further, even after Kimmel was suspended, Carr warned “we’re not done yet.”

On 18 September, the GOP voted on party lines to not investigate Carr’s actions and words that have intensified the debate on censorship.¹² On 19 September 2025 Trump suggested that the FCC pull the licenses of news organizations and stations that criticize him. “Maybe their licenses should be taken away.”

A lawsuit is currently underway that alleges that the new Trump/Patel FBI is administering loyalty tests not to the Constitution but to identify political identifications. This is worrisome at face value.¹³ Even worse than censoring beliefs of government agents it is screening those that will enforce freedoms of speech to ensure they are ideologically supportive of those directing curtailment of rights.

In 2025, Trump filed a $15B lawsuit against the NY Times alleging libel and defamation. The number is likely so high to intentionally bankrupt the news outlet that is a frequent Trump critic. On 19 September, a judge threw out the lawsuit as filed but will allow a do-over if Trump wishes in a month. The judge said, “"As every lawyer knows (or is presumed to know), a complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective — not a protected platform to rage against an adversary," US District Judge Steven Merryday wrote in a snappy order Friday. "A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally or the functional equivalent of the Hyde Park Speakers' Corner."¹⁴ Ironically, Trump’s spokesman fired back with insults against the NY Times and its staff and Trump himself took to Truth Social to call a sitting member of Congress (Ilhan Omar) ‘Scum.’ In a pattern played over and over for his entire presidency, ‘hate speech’ and inciting speech rules don’t seem to apply to the President but the same man is becoming more aggressive to enforce it in his political enemies when it is convenient and beneficial to do so.

It is very clear that unilateral, partisan censorship has become policy of the Trump administration. There is no way to spin this by saying it was a misguided staffer who made a mistake. President Trump is very vocal and bellicose and speaks very clearly his endorsements for censorships on his Truth Social and with the press.

Worse, yet another administration is circling its wagons to defend the President who is a nearly daily offender of the new censorship social rules being imposed by the current administration. Hypocrisy and villainy come to mind.

This is a dark time in our country. We went from one side censoring the other to the other side now in a form of revenge doing the same to the other side. This time, action is much more severe and worrisome as it is being done very publicly with stated intent to intimidate speech that Trump does not agree with. There is stated intent to brush the First Amendment aside by executive order, not by Congressional and States’ vote. This is antithetical to our country. Democracies must have transparency and freedom of speech to hold leaders honest and accountable. Leaders that censor do so for personal gain and for punishment. Our country should not adopt the normal practices of population thought control like in Iran, China, Russia, North Korea, and other such regimes. Many right leaning media outlets that fell victim to this in the past should understand this well and clamor for free speech for all.

Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.”

Rowan Atkinson, famously known as Mr Bean, has been very vocal in the UK regarding suppression of freedom of speech that has been rising in his country. “The best way to increase society’s resistance to insulting or offensive speech is to allow a lot more of it.”

Former President Barack Obama said, “We have to uphold a free press and freedom of speech – because in the end lies and misinformation are no match for the truth.”

Former President Ronald Reagan had one of the best quotes about freedoms:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”

In 2019, Trump said the following regarding the First Amendment:

“To me free speech is not when you see something good and then you purposefully write bad,” Trump said. “To me that’s very dangerous speech and you become angry at it. But that’s not free speech.”¹⁵

This explanation is worrisome but consistent with his comments in 2025 to go after news outlets that offer criticism of his presidency while ignoring hateful commentary from right leaning media. His administration is not doing well. Poll numbers are dropping. He is resorting to gerrymandering to keep the House next year. Censorship is obviously the next step in the progression to stifle criticism of his achievements or lack thereof to keep power in the mid-term elections.

I spent nearly three years of my life in the military fighting for basic rights for non-Americans around the world. Never would I ever imagine that the same government that sent me abroad with that charge would try to justify curtailment of the Bill of Rights in my own country – again.

Our country is extremely charged at the present. Odds for civil war are increasing. Both sides live more and more in groupthink ecosystems of acquaintances, media, news, and social media circles. I live in both. Professionally, the medical community tends to lean left. My personal and military circles lean right and I can attest that there is anger and toxicity in commentary (and often violent undertones) on both sides. Our country appears to be caught in a pendulum that swings left then right where each side seems to want something between revenge and victory lap to ensure their side always keeps power. Citizens (and the politicians that serve them) need to ask themselves – will they be ok if (when) the power tables shifted and what they are condoning/advocating to be done to the other side is suddenly done to them. In plain speech, will the right be ok with the left suddenly invoking unilateral censorship of the right shutting down Fox news for a story that they (left) didn’t like when the left regains the White House. Rest assured, the pendulum will swing again and memories of past wrongs will be there. There will be no chances to ask for forgiveness.

Not even a year ago, Republican Richard Hudson, then chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the following to Fox News in August 2024 in response to Mark Zuckerburg admitting that he caved to Biden pressure to censor Facebook users during COVID:

“"For too long, the Harris-Biden admin pressured social media companies to censor Americans' views online. This was a deliberate abuse of power to stifle free speech.”

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (Republican) similarly told Fox News in August 2024 regarding the Facebook censorship:

“"Mark Zuckerberg's letter to [the House Judiciary Committee] leaves no room for doubt: this was an intentional assault on our First Amendment rights. This abuse of power must end now."¹⁶

In September 2025, Republican Clay Higgins stated amidst the Kirk upheaval:

““So, I’m going to lean forward in this fight, demanding that big tech have zero tolerance for violent political hate content, the user to be banned from ALL PLATFORMS FOREVER,” he continued. “I’m also going after their business licenses and permitting, their businesses will be blacklisted aggressively, they should be kicked from every school, and their drivers licenses should be revoked.”

Curiously, Higgins’ silence seems to condone or at least tolerate the exact same hateful, aggressive political hate that emanates from the President.¹⁷ Republican memories of being on the receiving end of censorship are short…or the desire for revenge is strong…or both. Either way, it is bad for America and bad for our Constitution.

News today provides even another example. Despite all the rhetoric for the past week to condemn political hate speech and violence, I am not aware of President Trump or any Republicans condemning the Texas man arrested yesterday for death threats against NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani. Last week Stephen Miller said the following referring to the left:

““It is a vast domestic terror movement,” Miller said. “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people.”

To date, Miller has said nothing when a Democrat candidate faced an assassination threat. It seems Miller is only focused on defending Red politicians and Red Americans.¹⁸ To an outside observer the logical conclusion is the current party in power seeks a one party state through whatever means possible and is leveraging this crisis to achieve that end.

In 2023, Miller made the following statements decrying suppression of American rights by the Biden administration:

““We’ve entered a dark new era in American history in which the prosecutor’s office has been weaponized and transformed into a tool of political repression,” Miller moaned while talking to host Maria Bartiromo and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.).“Anyone who is really thinking that it stops here, and anybody thinking, ‘Well this will be it, the radical left will move on,’ is living in a delusion, they’re living in an absolute fantasy.”Miller cried election interference as he accused prosecutors of charging Trump attorneys with “thought crimes,” making a melodramatic reference to the dystopian novel “1984.”¹⁹

What a difference 2 years makes. Miller is now on the other end of the censorship stick and is wielding it with zeal.

This is not a red or blue issue. It is an American issue and at all times Americans regardless of who is in power should decry censorship. Further, it is acceptable and in many ways vital for Americans to feel comfortable and compelled to criticize leaders in their own party. Without criticism, political affiliation becomes a cult where a small number of super powerful political leaders on each side speak and their entire party (officials and voters) mindlessly obey while cheering them on regardless of the order’s merit ethically and legally.

It seems my interest in Jimmy Kimmel has come full circle. I still am not a fan of his brand of comedy. However, as stated before, I think any form of censorship is wrong especially considering the censorship occurring is being applied to only one side of the political isle and the President himself is repeatedly guilty of what his administration is being charged to prosecute and suppress. I condemned President Biden’s administration when it attempted to suppress free speech. I am condemning President Trump’s even more aggressive efforts to do the same. It matters not to me what political color the President is or who I voted for. Red/blue. Any suppression of free speech is unacceptable.

When cooler heads return to power, this period of time in our history needs to be thoroughly investigated and offenders prosecuted, including elected officials from Congress all the way to the White House. Failure to do so will reduce our country to a 3^rd world autocracy, if we haven’t arrived there already.

No politician or official is important enough to shield from their unethical and in many cases illegal actions. No one is above the law.

1. https://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/
2. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-freedom-of-speech-and-ending-federal-censorship/
3. https://apnews.com/article/trump-ap-journalism-first-amendment-8a83d8b506053249598e807f8e91e1ae
4. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/pentagon-removes-major-media-outlets-nbc-news-dedicated-workstations-p-rcna190276
5. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pentagon-boots-ny-times-nbc-news-npr-in-favor-of-the-post-breitbart-and-oan/ar-AA1ykNKN
6. https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/trump-threatens-to-force-journalists-to-reveal-who-leaked-report-undermining-his-narrative-on-iran-bombing/ar-AA1HDFZV
7. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-trumps-threat-to-take-away-rosie-odonnells-u-s-citizenship
8. https://www.foxnews.com/media/colbert-tells-trump-go-f-yourself-after-president-taunts-him-over-show-cancellation?msockid=1eef7f9c69b861f53d476c7b689d607e
9. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/avenge-charlie-death-fox-news-004350380.html
10. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-first-amendment-rights_n_68c8d36ae4b00ea6483a2acd
11. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/maybe-trump-threatens-abc-reporter-151500896.html
12. https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/09/18/congress/house-oversight-rejects-bid-to-subpoena-fccs-brendan-carr-00571727
13. https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/watch/-a-political-purge-at-the-fbi-lawsuit-details-stunning-loyalty-test-that-led-to-firings-at-the-fbi-247404613947
14. https://apnews.com/article/trump-lawsuit-new-york-times-3141806904f4f70e9a986b787599c6a8
15. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/07/12/the-trump-bill-of-rights-227356/
16. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/deliberate-abuse-power-republicans-erupt-after-bombshell-zuckerberg-letter-covid-19-censorship?msockid=1eef7f9c69b861f53d476c7b689d607e
17. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/maga-rep-wants-charlie-kirk-163041925.html
18. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/stephen-miller-issues-unhinged-threat-over-charlie-kirk-s-death/ar-AA1MANWD?ocid=BingNewsVerp
19. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stephen-miller-biden-criminal-referrals_n_64e24f49e4b0ce7f01205068