U.S. Preesident Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, FL, March 1, 2026. (White House photo by Daniel Torok/Flickr)
"Real Time" host Bill Maher recently commented that if Americans aren't willing to vigorously defend others' right to express ideas they personally find repugnant, they don't really believe in the First Amendment. Never Trump conservative David French makes a similar argument in a Thursday column for the New York Times, warning that "snowflake" President Donald Trump is going to increasingly "absurd" extremes to silence or punish viewpoints he disagrees with.
French points to the 2025 arrest of Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk (who is from Turkey) after she helped write an op-ed critical of Israel. Last week, the conservative columnist notes, federal judge Noël Wise, "issued a declaratory judgment striking down as unconstitutional the federal statutes that the Trump administration used to target Ozturk and hundreds of other student visa holders, at least to the extent that enforcement is based on protected speech." And MAGA Republicans, including Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller, are angrily raging against Wise.
French describes the MAGA argument that the First Amendment is not a "suicide pact” as "one of the most absurd examples of snowflakery I've ever seen in my life."
Trump, French argues, is such a "snowflake" that instead of debating those he disagrees with, he would rather try to bully them into silence.
"I don't agree with the op-ed, but no rational person could read it and find anything legally problematic about it," French explains. "It was political speech that rests at the core of the First Amendment. In fact, if the (U.S. Constitution's) Free Speech Clause means anything, it means that each of us has the right to engage in political argument, no matter if our views are radically fringe, comfortably mainstream or something in between."
The conservative columnist adds, "This is basic stuff. Every public official in the United States should understand this fundamental civic and constitutional fact. Not only was (Ozturk) detained, but the Trump administration sought to deport her, to kick her out of the country for expressing a view it did not like."
But the Ozturk case, French warns, is but one example of Trump and allies like White House adviser Stephen Miller trying to punish people for speech they disagree with.
"The First Amendment itself isn't confined to citizens," French writes. "It contains instead a blanket prohibition against Congress enacting any laws that abridge the freedom of speech, and in multiple other provisions, the Constitution refers to the rights of persons, not just citizens … Does the Trump administration really believe that our nation is so fragile — and public debate so perilous — that a few hundred undergrads and grad students can destabilize our nation with their speech?"
