Suppress & Punish Free Speech
2025 June
2025-06-11 Karoline Leavitt claimed that Trump was a champion for the First Amendment at the same time Trump threatened to sue or revoke licenses of networks that didn’t agree with him. She herself revoked press credentials for anyone in the press pool that didn’t refer to the Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America”.
https://www.freedomforum.org/trump-white-house-associated-press-first-amendment
https://www.yahoo.com/news/leavitt-storms-press-briefing-over-195442782.html
2025 September
2025-09-11 The dean of Tennessee University was fired over a ‘zero sympathy’ post about Charlie Kirk.
2025-09-13 American Airlines pilots were grounded and removed from service just for talking negatively about the Charlie Kirk shooting.
https://x.com/SecDuffy/status/1966943501444415920
2025-09-13 An Office Depot employee was fired for refusing to print Charlie Kirk posters, calling them propaganda.
2025-09-15 News outlets began to report on the wide controversy whether to ban Charlie Kirk rhetoric from social media platforms. Speaker Mike Johnson stated that “social media has been a toxin in politics”. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson stated “President Trump is a champion for free speech”.
2025-09-15 In retaliation, conservatives worked to ensure that anyone who offended the Charlie Kirk base by not sufficiently mourning was fired. By this date the media already cited employee firings from Office Depot, American Airlines, MSNBC, multiple teachers, NASDAQ, Perkins Coe, members of the secret service, Microsoft, and the Washington Post. Meanwhile, Republicans who had previously celebrated the assault of Nancy Pelosi’s husband, death of the Minnesota senators, killing of George Floyd, or suggested an entire population of homeless people be “euthanized” remain employed to this day.
https://apnews.com/article/dowd-msnbc-kirk-comments-e08f349022c9d69171cd575664141075
https://abovethelaw.com/2025/09/perkins-coie-fires-lawyer-over-this-charlie-kirk-post/
https://x.com/Microsoft/status/1966626714148368766
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/teachers-punishment-social-media-posts-173737509.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/business/media/washington-post-charlie-kirk-karen-attiah.html
2025-09-15 JD Vance hosted the Charlie Kirk podcast and urged listeners to call out anyone expressing joy or not adequately mourning. He added, “hell, call their employers”.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pentagon-reviewing-service-members-social-media-posts-on-charlie-kirk/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0r5y33pj5o
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/16/jd-vance-doxing-charlie-kirk-critics
2025-09-19 In a report from MSNBC, all 9 Supreme Court Justices agreed that the government cannot coerce businesses to suppress views.
2025-09-25 An Austin Peay State University professor was fired over a post about Charlie Kirk the school deemed too insensitive.
2025 October
2025-10-28 A Tennessee man was arrested and jailed for over 30 days for posting an online meme quoting President Trump. One day after a local news outlet reported on the incarceration, Perry County dropped the charges and released the man.
2026 January
2026-01-16 The DOJ under Trump accused Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey of fraud and conspiracy to impede immigration agents.
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/doj-opens-criminal-probe-targeting-minnesota/
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/06/timeline-of-fraud-investigations-that-shaped-walz-tenure
2026 February
2026-02-03 DHS submitted an administrative subpoena against a 67-year-old man from Pennsylvania after he wrote an email to them asking to “apply principles of common sense and decency” in their treatment of a man seeking asylum from Afghanistan. DHS issued the subpoena to Google just hours after the man sent the email so they could access the man’s computer and Gmail. Two weeks later, they showed up to his front door for questioning. The ACLU had to get involved to challenge the subpoena and the violation of his First Amendment rights.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/02/03/homeland-security-administrative-subpoena/
https://newrepublic.com/post/206088/homeland-security-67-year-old-us-citizen-criticized-email
2026-02-14 DHS requested personal information of online users who have been critical of ICE, including names, email addresses, phone numbers and other identifying data.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/technology/dhs-anti-ice-social-media.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dhs-orders-tech-giants-to-unmask-anti-ice-accounts/
2026 April
2026-04-08 The Pentagon made threats to the new Pope after the Pope criticized Trump. Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby said (according to quotes in articles) “The United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qZkia_-POE&list=WL&index=6&t=27s
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/pentagon-threatened-pope-criticized-trump-212552754.html
https://www.thefp.com/p/why-the-vatican-and-the-white-house
PAY WALL https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-official-gives-vatican-bitter-lecture-amid-growing-rift/
2026-04-08 Former Fort Bragg employee Courtney Williams was arrested on 1917 espionage charges after allegedly leaking classified information to a journalist from Politico. This was after she shared information about sexual and race-based harassment at Fort Bragg and the story was published by Seth Harp “The Fort Bragg Cartel”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/08/fbi-arrests-ex-military-employee
2026-04-16 Tennessee passed House Bill 1476, the “Charlie Kirk Act”, limiting campus walkouts and protests. So basically, if you disagree or cause what the GOP considers a disruption, you can be expelled from school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ5hlrDtFYk&list=WL&index=3&t=98s
https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-politics/charlie-kirk-act-passed/
https://www.newsweek.com/charlie-kirk-act-tennessee-free-speech-11837604
https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default?BillNumber=HB1476&GA=114
2026-04-28 Shortly after Trump and First Lady Melania Trump demanded Jimmy Kimmel be fired, the FCC opened an investigation into ABC and Disney for DEI practices.
https://abcnews.com/US/fcc-orders-early-review-abcs-broadcast-licenses/story?id=132466823
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fcc-disney-abc-early-license-renewal-jimmy-kimmel-dei/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/fcc-threatens-abcs-licenses-as-trumps-call-for-kimmels-firing
2026-04-30 Congress passed a 45-day extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) section 702. This is controversial because the bill would allow the government to abuse the power and spy on American citizens while claiming it’s for national security.
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DXuC4IvCKz9/
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/30/fisa-section-702-congress-extension.html
https://www.axios.com/2026/04/29/house-passes-fisa-intelligence-bill-senate-opposition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2YMqZvyvMs&list=WL&index=3&t=56s
2026 May
2026-05-04 The organization Reporters Without Borders released its 2026 Press Freedom index showing the lowest level of free speech in 25 years, with U.S. ranking at number 64.