By Olivier Acuña Barba •
Published: 15 Apr 2025 • 17:32
• 3 minutes read
Trump said he champions freedom of expression, but does he really | Photo: White House Press Office
President Trump signed an executive order “restoring freedom of speech,” but many have questioned its genuineness and say his actions speak otherwise.
The Trump administration have carried out actions that are nothing but blatant attacks on the US Constitution’s First Amendment, which defends freedom of speech or of the press. Last Friday, the White House sent a five-page letter to Harvard University asking them to comply with a series of demands, including limiting student protests, a right protected under the First Amendment.
“No government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Alan Garber, the university president, wrote, calling the government’s demands a political ploy.
“Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard,” Garber added.
His statements also followed a US Department of Education statement “announcing a freeze on $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60M in multi-year contract value to Harvard University.”
‘Unquestionable violation of First Amendment rights’
Harvard Law Professor Andrew Crespo told CNN that Trump administration demands are a “clear and unquestionable violation of First Amendment rights.”
Crespo and other Harvard law professors lodged a lawsuit last week against Trump’s threats to cut $9 billion in federal contracts and grants awarded to the Ivy League school as part of a crackdown on what the government says is antisemitism on college campuses.
“This action challenges the Trump administration’s unlawful and unprecedented misuse of federal funding and civil rights enforcement authority to undermine academic freedom and free speech on a university campus,” the lawsuit reads.
The document filed in court on April 11 says, “President Trump expressly campaigned on a promise to undermine free speech and academic freedom by using federal power to control universities.”
Former President Obama on X posted a statement supporting Harvard’s decision to reject Trump’s demands.
“Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate, and mutual respect. Let’s hope other institutions follow suit,” he wrote.
Trump’s attacks are a threat to us all
An Op-Ed on the Guardian warns that Donald “Trump’s attacks on freedom of speech are a threat to us all.”·
“He has removed longstanding news organisations from the Pentagon, restricted access to news events for storied news agency Associated Press, seized control of the White House press pool from news organisations, and moved to shut outlets broadcasting Voice of America and Radio Free Asia across our region,” the opinion piece by Zoe Daniel adds.
“It is an undisguised war on information and evidence; retribution for the objective reporting of Trump over the past decade and a naked attempt to replace it with slavish sycophancy from supportive outlets,” it says.
It pointedly says Trump’s attacks on freedom of the press could not have come at a worse moment, one where fake news, influencing public opinion with lies and propaganda, have become a key tool used by oppressive regimes worldwide.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) recently published a comprehensive list of the many Trump administration attacks on freedom of the press, which they called an “onslaught intended to weaken Americans’ First Amendment rights.”
“Trump’s second term as president has been a tumultuous whirlwind for journalism,” the NGO said. “The newly-elected president, his administration, and his political allies have conducted a rapid series of attacks on press freedom that amount to a monumental assault on freedom of information.”
AP also sues Trump’s government
On March 27, the Washington-based Associated Press (AP), arguably the most prominent global news agency, complained to a federal judge regarding Trump’s ban barring them from covering White House news.
“The Trump administration’s ban is a fundamental attack on freedom of speech and should be overturned,” AP said.
“For anyone who thinks the Associated Press’s lawsuit against President Trump’s White House is about the name of a body of water, think bigger,” Julie Pace, the AP’s executive editor, wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. “It’s really about whether the government can control what you say.”
Trump is five days away from completing three months in office. However, he has already managed to turn the world on its heels, making it easier to agree with an Op-Ed on Al Jazeera by Donald Earl Collins, a Professorial Lecturer at American University in Washington, DC, anticipating what a second Trump term would look like.
“The coming four years will be marked by persecution, oppression, retribution, and needless death from forced pregnancies, mass deportations, nonsensical public health decisions, and preventable wars,” Collins wrote.
