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The Beginning of the End of Free Speech Under Trump [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-09-19
Free speech rarely disappears in one dramatic moment. It fades step by step, as leaders bend institutions to serve themselves. Under Donald Trump, that erosion has moved from threat to reality — and nowhere is it clearer than at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The FCC is supposed to be an independent guardian of the public airwaves. Its mandate: protect the free flow of information, enforce broadcast standards, and ensure stations serve the public interest. But under Trump, the FCC has been transformed into a political weapon, rewarding loyalty and punishing dissent.
Loyalty Is Safe, Criticism Is Dangerous
When Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said homeless people should “just be killed,” the outrage was instant. Politicians condemned it. Advocacy groups demanded accountability. Yet Fox faced no sanction, no license review, no FCC hearings. (AP News)
Now imagine if an anchor at CNN or MSNBC said something critical about Trump himself. Suddenly there’s talk of “license reviews.” Renewal processes that should be routine become political leverage. The FCC’s power to grant or deny access to the airwaves becomes a tool to intimidate critics into silence.
The message is unmistakable: if you’re loyal to Trump, you’re untouchable. If you cross him, your entire network could be at risk.
Sidebar: A History of FCC Weaponization
Trump didn’t invent this tactic — but he’s taking it further than anyone before.
Nixon (1970s): Infuriated by coverage of Vietnam and Watergate, Nixon tried to use FCC license renewals to pressure stations and punish The Washington Post’s broadcast holdings.
Reagan (1987): Reagan’s FCC killed the Fairness Doctrine, which had required broadcasters to cover issues of public importance in a balanced way. That deregulation cleared the path for partisan talk radio and, later, Fox News.
Trump (2020s): Unlike Nixon or Reagan, Trump doesn’t just push the rules — he openly threatens to pull licenses from networks that criticize him, while protecting allies no matter how extreme their rhetoric.
This trajectory shows a slow dismantling of the FCC’s role as an impartial regulator — until under Trump, it becomes outright censorship.
Why This Is Dangerous
The First Amendment was written to protect dissent, not flattery. But under Trump’s FCC, the airwaves are being divided into two categories:
Praise him, and you’re protected.
Criticize him, and you risk being silenced.
That’s not regulation. That’s dictatorship by degrees.
What Must Happen Next
If America wants to remain a democracy, the FCC chair Trump installed must be removed. Regulators cannot serve as political enforcers. Newsrooms cannot live under constant threats to their existence.
Because once free speech goes, every other freedom follows. And make no mistake: the beginning of the end of free speech under Trump is already here.
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