Republicans embrace speech limits
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President Trump and MAGA spent years lampooning censorship, discrimination against conservatives, and progressive "cancel culture."
- Now in power — and riding an outpouring of grief and fury over Charlie Kirk's tragic killing — they're enforcing speech codes to punish ideological opponents.
Why it matters: Backed by the Trump administration, digital vigilantes are demanding arrests, firings and deportations for anti-Kirk posts and remarks.
Zoom in: Any person who celebrates or mocks Kirk's death — or even criticizes his right-wing views — is being cast as complicit in political violence.
- The Charlie Kirk Data Foundation — an anonymous website initially branded as "Expose Charlie's Murderers" — claims to have received more than 60,000 submissions.
- Hundreds of people, if not more, have been fired for social media activity related to last week's shooting, including federal workers and military members named and shamed by Trump Cabinet secretaries.
What they're saying: "There's free speech and then there's hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society," Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday.
- "We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech," she vowed.
Reality check: "There is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment," the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said in a statement condemning Bondi's remarks.
Between the lines: Conservatives say companies, hospitals, universities and certainly the government deserve to know whether their employees support "terrorism."
- People who disavowed violence but criticized Kirk's conservative worldview — or simply posted his controversial quotes on race, gender, abortion and other issues — have also been targeted by MAGA influencers.
- Six NFL teams drew conservative backlash for declining to hold a moment of silence for Kirk during Sunday's games.
- Some localities and businesses were targeted for not lowering their flags to half-staff to honor Kirk, as Trump had ordered.
The intrigue: Elon Musk — who in 2023 offered to pay the legal bills of anyone fired for their posts on X — has backed the efforts to punish people who celebrated Kirk's death.
- So, too, has Vice President Vance, who said Monday while guest-hosting a memorial edition of "The Charlie Kirk Show": "When you see someone celebrating Charlie's murder, call them out. And hell, call their employer."
- House Republicans on Monday introduced resolutions to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from her committees for critical comments she made about Kirk in the wake of his killing.
Behind the scenes: The calculus changed for Republicans with Kirk's murder. It's personal for the White House and leaders of the MAGA movement who counted Kirk as a close friend.
- And Kirk was assassinated for his political speech at one of his events designed to highlight the importance of free speech and debate without violence.
- Conservative author and commentator Kurt Schlichter said Saturday on X: "This situation is fundamentally different (not for people who do politics all the time because we already knew it) because it's very clear that a substantial number of Democrats want to literally murder us."
The big picture: Even before Kirk's death, the Trump administration and MAGA had signaled that some forms of speech are conditional on political allegiance and identity.
- Private sector: Besides handing out loyalty ratings for corporations, Trump has engaged in an unprecedented campaign to blacklist Big Law firms from government contracts unless they accede to his demands.
- Immigrants: The State Department — which vowed to review the status of immigrants praising Kirk's death — has revoked visas and moved to deport pro-Palestinian activists involved in campus protests.
- Bureaucrats: Trump has sought to purge the federal government of career staff with ties to Democrats, assisted in that effort by MAGA activist Laura Loomer, who has claimed credit for dozens of firings.
- Media: The Trump administration stripped $1.1 billion in funding for NPR and PBS and dismantled the Voice of America, part of a broader campaign to punish outlets — including through regulatory action — that MAGA sees as hostile.
- Patriotism: Trump signed an executive order last month targeting the burning of the American flag, an act of political protest the Supreme Court has ruled is protected under the First Amendment. Trump on Monday bemoaned his inability to outright ban flag-burning, and wondered if it could be legally considered an unlawful incitement to riot.
The bottom line: Conservatives who once declared free speech an absolute right are drawing new lines.
- Axios' Marc Caputo contributed to this report.
