Screenshot via Jimmy Kimmel Live on YouTube
President Donald Trump appeared to violate his own executive order on free speech that he signed at the start of his second administration.
Trump signed Executive Order 14149, titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship,” on the day of his second inauguration.
According to the order, “The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference.”
Trouble is, the Trump administration has vowed to retaliate against anyone who speaks out in a way that displeases the president, even late-night comedians like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.
ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, just hours after Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr threatened the network’s license after the host erroneously claimed the suspected killer of Charlie Kirk is a conservative.
“Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Kimmel’s suspension came even after Rolling Stone reported that “several execs believe that Kimmel said nothing over the line.”
Colbert’s show was canceled in July after he called a settlement his network’s parent company reached with Donald Trump, “a big, fat bribe.”
After Colbert and Kimmel were ousted, Trump celebrated each time.
Some everyday Americans are also receiving pressure from the Trump administration, albeit indirectly. According to The Washington Post:
Vice President JD Vance urged supporters to drum those “celebrating Charlie’s murder” out of their jobs and said the administration may strip tax-free status from two prominent foundations he accused of underwriting a “disgusting article” about Kirk. The State Department embarked on a global effort to identify foreign citizens “praising, rationalizing, or making light of” Kirk’s death and put them on a list to prevent them from ever receiving U.S. visas. Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed a sweeping crackdown on “hate speech.”
And yet, Trump’s executive order accused the Biden administration of trampling “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.”
The executive order also stated, “Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.”
The post Trump Appears To Violate Own Executive Order With Kimmel Suspension first appeared on Mediaite.
