In just this week, President Donald Trump has sued the New York Times for $15 billion over its negative coverage of him, suggested that broadcasters who criticize him should potentially have their licenses revoked, and celebrated the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel as "great news for America.”
And for many of Trump’s diehard supporters – self-styled ‘defenders of free speech’ – defending the president has meant twisting themselves “into painful mental contortions” to reconcile their purported beliefs with his recent actions, Jonathan Chait argued Saturday in a column for The Atlantic.
“We should spare a thought for the party’s more conflicted wing, the anti-anti-Trump conservatives… they profess support for free speech, democracy, and the rule of law while attempting to remain Republicans in good standing,” Chait wrote with tongue in cheek.
“...It is a survival strategy, and not a pleasant way to spend four years. That which causes the natcons unremitted joy forces the anti-anti-Trumpers into painful mental contortions. No event to date has given them more anguish than Trump’s gleeful defenestration of Kimmel.”
Kimmel was suspended “indefinitely” this week after receiving scrutiny over a comment he made on the suspected killer of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, comments that suggested he was aligned with MAGA.
The decision to oust Kimmel was reportedly made by top Disney executives, a decision that critics say was made, in part, to curry favor with the Trump administration amid a pursuit of a $6 billion merger, which ultimately would need approval from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission.
Chait pointed to a number of “anti-anti-Trumpers” who he argued had conceded that while the optics of Kimmel’s ousting “looked bad,” it was still consistent with Trump being a champion for free speech.
“Ilya Shapiro, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argued on X that Kimmel was fired because his show ‘was losing money’ – ‘there was thus no govt coercion here.’ But, he allowed, ‘FCC statements were unhelpful because makes it look like threat of govt action for bad viewpoints,’” Chait wrote.
“The conservative commentator Mike Solana insisted that, despite the perception that Trump ordered Kimmel off the air, ‘this didn’t happen.’ Rather, Solana elaborated on X, ‘jimmy’s ratings were abysmal. he spread a conspiracy theory about kirk. two major affiliates refused to carry his show. ABC fired him.’”
Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick to lead the FCC, directly threatened to revoke broadcast licenses from ABC, which is owned by Disney, warning them “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
“Awkwardly, these comments do make it seem like Trump may very well be extorting the networks by threatening their broadcast licenses so they’ll remove his critics from the airwaves,” Chait wrote.
“But surely there’s another innocent if convoluted explanation for these facts brewing in the minds of the not-yet-openly authoritarian Republican elite. Their future in the party may depend on it.”
