Conservatives fear 'weaponized' backlash from Trump targeting free speech

President Donald Trump at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland on February 22, 2025 (Gage Skidmore)

American Conservative writer Scott Greer warns “laws targeting hate speech or ‘violent’ speech would be weaponized against conservatives” by a future Democratic president.

Greer referenced Attorney General Pam Bondi’s “noxious” suggestion that the government, in response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, target "hate speech"

“One could reasonably conclude that Bondi’s DOJ intends to target right-wingers with this standard,” Greer said. “That would absolutely set a precedent for Democratic administrations to follow, empowering the left to persecute conservatives for merely endorsing immigration restriction or criticizing Black Lives Matter.”

“It’s nonsensical to push for any form of speech restriction in the U.S. while opposing these same measures in the EU,” said Greer — but that’s not the biggest can of worms Trump’s war on hate speech opens for the right.

“There’s an apparent feeling that the right now has the social capital and institutional power to implement our own speech codes,” Greer said. “That’s presumptuous, to say the least. Many of the people who will be interpreting these measures are liberal bureaucrats and officials.”

“Let’s say we do counter ‘violent speech.’ In the eyes of a liberal, demanding a strong response to riots or even ‘misgendering’ a trans individual could count as threats of violence,” Greer warned. “Any limitation on free speech would be a gift to the left. Thanks to their power in elite institutions and within the administrative state, they can interpret these laws as they see fit. It would make it much easier to have de facto hate speech laws, even if the law says we have no such thing.”

Free speech has served the right well, said Greer.

“Trump was able to win the 2024 election in large part due to the freer state of social media," Greer said. "The 47th president didn’t have to worry about his campaign posts being taken down or his supporters banned like in 2020. Free speech reigned once more on the big platforms, which allowed the right to triumph in the election.”

According to Greer, the right is “now able to broadcast its views to millions without the threat of censorship or government heavy-handedness.”

“That’s something we should preserve rather than sacrifice on behalf of a misguided assumption that new speech restrictions will only be used against the left,” Grer said.

Read the American Conservative report at this link.

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