A tweet published by Trump himself on his social media platform makes it sound like the US president is at least considering stopping funding for education institutions that allow "illegal protests".
The definition of "illegal protest" isn't clear at all. Presumably Trump is referring to the recent protests in support of Ukraine, or the ones against Israel, or the ones against him. But the definition doesn't matter as much as the intention behind this tweet: Trump is trying to intimidate schools and universities across the country into silencing dissent. Is this what America looks like now? A country where freedom of speech isn't enshrined, but openly threatened?
I am not saying that I agree with the protests. After all, I don't even know exactly what protests he is talking about. But that is besides the point: we should all, at all times, defend everyone's freedom of speech. It doesn't matter that we agree or disagree with them: for a democratic system to function correctly, freedom of speech must be protected. Disagreements are an inevitable part of any healthy democracy, and threatening to withdraw funding from universities where students protest looks like an attempt to clamp down on dissent. It is not a good look for the "leader of the free world" to take this stance on the opposition.
The tweet comes after last week's decision by the White House to take control of the process that decides which news outlets have access to the Oval Office: instead of being decided by an independent association (founded in 1914), news outlets would be selected by the White House itself. This too looks like an attack on freedom of the press: "write nice things about me, or you might not have access to the White House", in other words.
It was also just last week that JD Vance warned UK prime minister Keir Starmer in the Oval Office of "infringements on free speech [in the UK]" - a bit thick coming from a guy whose president was once banned from Twitter and had to flee to a platform he called "Truth" to tweet all of his nonsense. Nevertheless, Vance has a valid point: freedom of speech in the UK has indeed been tested in recent years, with police visiting journalists' homes to 'warn' them about their tweets, and more recently with the decision to force Apple to give the UK government access to users' encrypted data.
It is good to keep friends accountable, and we appreciate Vance's concern for the UK's freedom of speech. But if I were him, I'd probably rather focus on the much bigger, much closer threat sitting in the White House.