President Trump Doubles Down on Orwellian Speech Laws

On January 30, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order aimed to “combat antisemitism.” The order, named “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism” reinstates and builds upon a prior executive order which was signed by Trump in 2019 during his first term as president of the United States. The order signed in 2019 was focused on enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, emphasizing protections for antisemitic discrimination within institutions that receive federal funding and adopting a tendentious definition of antisemitism, written up by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which controversially conflates criticisms of Israel with prejudice towards Jews.

The president’s newly signed order, expanding on its predecessor, outlines punitive measures against people who have protested Israel or sympathized with the Palestinians, particularly among American college campuses and universities. One of the order’s notable punishments includes the deportation of resident aliens, including international students. Trump’s order promises to prosecute American citizens and deport foreigners for engaging in what the government deems as “antisemitism.” Considering that the order builds upon the IHRA’s definition, it’s no surprise that criticizing the State of Israel is treated as engaging in antisemitism.

There’s a lot wrong with this executive order. For one, simply imagine if instead of focusing on Hamas or Palestinian sympathizers, Trump was threatening to deport Jews who expressed sympathies with Israel or the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). There have been plenty of pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian protests since October 7, 2023, and such an order would likely see many Americans and internationals, Jews among them, punished and or even deported. Such an incident would cause public outrage, and the media would likely draw some historical parallels to more troubled times. Alas, the irony is lost on many.

President Trump’s newly signed executive order paints the narrative that Jews experienced a wave of antisemitic discrimination and violence because of Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023. The document outlines examples which include Jews being denied access to campus and facilities such as classrooms and libraries. These incidents are, however, misleading. A primary example used to justify the executive order pertains to a viral video that purports to show a group of Jewish students barricading themselves in a library against a hostile pro-Palestinian protest. But this was proven untrue and was sensationalized like many of the other supposed “hate-crimes” that were publicized.

The narrative that the executive order paints is also deceitful. Not only were Jews not systematically targeted following October 7, but the notion that they were attacked as a follow-up to the October 7 incident is absurd. The blatant misconstruing of events echoes how the Biden regime painted a false history of covid-19 and the governmental response. The executive order also fails to even acknowledge the year-long bombing of Palestinians by Israeli forces which were funded and supported by the American government. That is, after all, why many of the protests were sparked and why the governments of Israel and America were its primary grievances.

No mention was also made of the hostile and anti-Palestinian rhetoric by American politicians and media pundits who have referred to Palestinians as terrorists, advocated to blow up Gaza, and expressed interest in cleaning out the area by relocating them. That last remark was also said by President Trump himself, highlighting the hypocrisy inherent in an executive order that claims to stand up against racism and prejudice. One could only imagine the outrage from the public if this dehumanizing rhetoric was instead directed at relocating Jews and cleaning out Israel. Alas, the Trump administration has proven that it is not only woke in its perpetuating of race-baiting and divisive victimhood, but that it will shamelessly lie for the sake of fulfilling an agenda.

This executive order is unequivocally a piece of race-baiting propaganda that, in woke fashion, advocates for a nanny government to seemingly protect minorities who are racially victimized in society. Trump has even gone so far as promising to be the “defender” and “protector” of Jewish Americans. What is more egregious, however, is the fact that the order moves forward with speech laws that punish people for criticizing a foreign government. While America chastises China for censoring people from criticizing their own government, the United States is punishing citizens for speaking ill of a foreign government. Not only is that absurd but it lends support to the troubling and unhealthy relationship shared by Israel and America.

A government that punishes its citizens for speaking ill of a foreign government will eventually extend such speech laws towards criticism that is directed at itself. In other words, Trump’s executive order helps to set a precedent that will ultimately see citizens punished for protesting the American government. This executive order creates a slippery slope that is steep and Orwellian, and advocates of free speech ought to oppose the Trump administration’s efforts to both expand the legality of hate-speech and suppress the liberty to protest and any all governments.