Saturday, May 3, 2025

So Much for Free Speech Under Trump

By Jacob G. Hornberger - May 03, 2025 at 10:29AM

After riding a wave of criticism of Democrats for suppressing freedom of speech, President Trump has just put the quietus on Amazon, which had the audacity to contemplate including the price of Trump’s tariffs in its shopping carts.

Upon hearing of Amazon’s plan, Trump went ballistic, calling Amazon’s plan a “hostile and political act.” According to an article in Aljazeera, Trump telephoned Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to express his displeasure. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt even pulled the Red card, pointing out that “Reuters recently wrote [that] Amazon partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.”

Alas, following the lead of major law firms and universities that have incurred Trump’s wrath, Amazon quickly capitulated, announcing that it would not share the tariff information with its buyers.

Trump was ecstatic, announcing “Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific. He solved a problem very quickly and he did the right thing.”

The episode reminded me of what Lyndon Johnson did soon after being elevated to the presidency after the JFK assassination. According to Robert Caro’s biography of Johnson, there were two newspapers in Texas that were investigating Johnson’s official corruption. While he was vice-president, Johnson could do nothing about it. But as president, things were different. He picked up the phone, talked to the editor or publisher of both newspapers, and informed them in no uncertain terms that he wanted the investigations terminated. Johnson mentioned the possibility of IRS audits and the federal government’s regulatory powers.

Both newspapers knew that the president of the United States wielded the power to do very bad things to them. Both investigations were immediately shut down and never pursued again. Johnson, no doubt, was as ecstatic as Trump.

Of course, Trump wouldn’t have to mention the IRS or some federal regulatory agency or the possibility of some new congressional Internet law to Bezos. By now, everyone is fully aware of the power of any U.S. president to do very bad things to people through the overwhelming regulatory and tax powers of the U.S. government.

What was wrong with what Amazon was contemplating? Nothing. Nothing at all. Amazon was simply going to inform Amazon buyers of the truth about what Trump’s tariffs were costing them. If that isn’t an exercise of freedom of speech, I don’t know what is.

But Trump obviously does not want American buyers of goods and services to see how much money his tariffs are costing them. He obviously just wants them to see how much money his tariff tax is bringing into the federal government, as if that is something good.

Convinced that Amazon’s plan to disclose the truth about the cost of his tariffs to American consumers was a “hostile” act, Trump and his minions immediately went on the attack and quickly won their war against Amazon. In the process, by striking a harsh and effective blow against the fundamental, God-given right of freedom of speech, Trump was guilty of what he criticized Democrats for doing.

Reprinted with permission from Future of Freedom Foundation.



from Ron Paul Institute Featured Articles

via IFTTT

No comments:

Post a Comment

Merchandise

Ron Paul America Cloud

Site Credits

Ron Paul America

is voluntarily affiliated with

Liberty Operations Group

______________________________

Site created, maintained and hosted by

Liberty Web Services

Tags

Constitution Individual Liberty Liberty Report Ron Paul Ron Paul Institute ronpaulinstitute.org #TurnOnTheTruth 2008 2012 4th amendment 911 ACTION Afghanistan war Agency Aggression Principle al-Qaeda Alan Colmes Alert America America's Fault Americans antigun AR 15 assault weapon Audit Authoritarian bailouts Believe Big Brother big government bill of rights Blame blowback bubbles Bush Campaign for Liberty Career Politician Eric Cantor Central Bank Charity China churches collapse Collectivism Commission committee Compassion Congress Conservative constitution Crash dangerous person Democrat Democrats Donald Trump Donald Trump. Planned Parenthood drones economic Economy Edward Snowden End the Fed European Union Federal Reserve Floyd Bayne floyd bayne for congress force foreign interventionism free market free markets GOP Nominee GOP Presidential Debates Government Great Depression gun control House of Representatives housing bubble HR 1745 I like Ron Paul except on foreign policy If ye love wealth better than liberty IFTTT Individual Individualism Institute Irag Iran Iraq war ISIL ISIS Judge Andrew Napalitano libertarian Liberty Liberty Letters Liberty Report Lost mass Media meltdown metadata Micheal Moore Middle East Mitt Romney nap National Neocons New Ron Paul Ad New York Times Newsletters Newt Gingrich No Non non-interventionism NSA NSA Snooping Obama Overreach overthrow Patriot Act peace Peace and Prosperity politicians Pope Francis President Presidential Presidential Race programs prosperity Race Racist Racist Newsletters Rand Paul Read the Bills Act recessions redistribution of wealth refugee crisis Repeal Obamacare Report Republican Republican Nomination Republican Nominee Republicans Revolution Rick Santorum Rick Santorum Exposed Ron Ron Paul Ron Paul Institute Ron Paul Institute Featured Articles Ron Paul Institute for Peace And Prosperity Ron Paul Institute Peace and Prosperity Articles Ron Paul Next Chapter Media Channel Ron Paul Racist Newsletters ron paul's foreign policy Ronald Reagan ronpaulchannel.com ronpaulinstitute.org Rosa DeLauro russia Samuel Adams Saudi Arabia Second Amendment Security Senate Senator September 11th attacks Show Soviet Spying stimulate Stock Market surveillance Syria tech bubble terrorist The the Fed the poor US US foreign policy Us troops USA Freedom Act Virginia Virginia Republican Primary voluntarism. Liberty Voluntary Warner Warning warrantless wiretaps YouTube