by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com

In May, when I conceived the Courier’s First Amendment special edition, I envisioned a primer for our readers, sort of a guide to possible things to watch for.

But things have changed.

In the intervening months, the Trump administration has exceeded many of our most outrageous fears, delighting supporters and enraging critics along the way.

Speaking about media companies that criticize the Trump administration last week on “The Benny Show,” a podcast hosted by conservative activist Benny Johnson, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct … or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” In other words, public figures who criticize Trump in the media will lose their jobs, reputations, or otherwise be attacked by an adversary backed by the unlimited resources of the federal government.

On September 17, ABC announced the suspension of Trump critic Jimmy Kimmel and his “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” program. This followed CBS’s cancellation of fellow Trump critic Stephen Colbert’s popular Late Show in July.

“When you have a network, then you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, they’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One following news of Kimmel’s suspension.

On Monday, ABC parent company Disney announced Kimmel would be back on the air Tuesday, this following a $7.4 billion drop in stockholder value, according to Forbes. Make what you will of that financial fact, but it doesn’t take an economist to make the link between possible financial ruin and a change of heart with respect to the merits of a TV show.

Trump’s ire is not limited to lawsuits against and pressure exerted on media companies. He has also threatened high profile universities such as Harvard, Cornell, and Northwestern with revocation of billions of dollars in grant and research funding, citing pervasive campus antisemitism and “left-wing indoctrination” as grounds for legal action. Some universities, including Brown and Columbia, have capitulated, paying hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements rather than fight. The Trump administration has also gone after law firms, the judiciary, nonprofits, the military intelligence community, and most recently the United Nations, to name a few.

These high profile attacks on critics and adversaries have stretched limits of American’s First Amendment protections. And they have chilling echoes.

Like Adolph Hitler in the 1930s, Trump has purged the civil service, attacked the press, punished his enemies, attacked higher education, and ignored inconvenient court decisions and habeas corpus protections. The Trump administration — especially Stephen Miller — is surfing the same waves as Germany’s Nazis did: demonizing immigrants, locking up dissent through intimidation and legal action, and threatening to remain in power regardless of what the 22^ndAmendment to the Constitution says about a third term.

And the administration’s attempts at chilling of free speech seem to have permeated Claremont.

I spoke with three Claremont Colleges politics professors who did not wish to be quoted for this article. I was also not surprised when I was unable to reach a visiting lecturer of mathematics at Pitzer College who had been included on the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA “professor watchlist,” with its mission “to expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” I was hoping to get the professor’s take on how the administration’s actions and rhetoric, and those of organizations like Turning Point, have affected their career and personal life. But alas, the intimidation and real life harm caused by Trump and his allies made the prospect of going on record with the Courier a no-win for the professor, who is no doubt just trying to put this behind them. I get it. I’m saddened by it, but I get it.

It’s not just the Colleges. A local public school administrator told me they were “just keeping our head down” to avoid unwanted scrutiny from the federal government, after I asked for comment on an earlier story about federal meddling in public school curricula. And since we were talking about children, I don’t fault them for wanting to keep the kids out of this high stakes skirmish.

The Philadelphia Enquirer’s Will Bunch summed it up succinctly in a recent piece: “It’s happening at the public University of Florida, where a top religion professor recently wrote that ‘administrators and faculty members alike practice anticipatory obedience to avoid even the appearance of wokeness, stifling the sort of open and civil discussions that lead students to develop their own views.’”

Free speech also includes the right to say things that some may find abhorrent or offensive. There is no carve out for “hate speech” in the First Amendment. Yet, the Trump administration has made it clear it will punish people for speech it considers offensive. Just last week, Trump lashed out at ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl after the reporter asked him about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s comment about cracking down on hate speech following the September 10 assassination of Charlie Kirk.

“She’ll probably go after people like you, because you treat me so unfairly,” Trump said. “You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they will come after ABC. ABC paid me $16 million recently for a form of hate speech. Your company paid me $16 million recently for a form of hate speech, so maybe they will have to go after you.”

Threats. Intimidation. It’s all part of the plan to cow the press into submission and silence. And it’s working.

As Trump mentioned, in December 2024 Disney/ABC paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump alleging defamation. In July, Paramount/CBS settled out of court with Trump for $16 million in a case in which the president alleged unfair treatment in a news story. In that case, Trump exploited his leverage over Paramount to extract the payment, as the federal government was in the position of approving or denying the media company’s proposed merger with Skydance Media. Surprise! The $8.4 billion merger went through August 7.

Though it’s hard to say what might yet be on the horizon with respect to new threats to our First Amendment rights, if the last six months are any indication, brace yourselves.

For now, the Courier will keep publishing opinion pieces that do not pull punches. But who’s to say what would happen to our modest little outfit if the newly weaponized FCC came calling. If you one day see headlines like, “Everything’s great! Don’t worry!” you will know the robots have taken over. Nothing to see here. Move along.