For years, conservatives have said the thought police wield too much power. They couldn’t understand why apolitical organizations should have to make statements about George Floyd. They complained bitterly when the government pushed social media platforms to toss users who questioned Covid science. “We may disagree with your views,” Vice President JD Vance said in February. “But we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square.”
That was before the assassination of Charlie Kirk. In the week since, the Trump administration has punished people who criticized Kirk and proposed to criminalize hate speech. Then on Wednesday it pushed ABC to suspend the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who had erroneously suggested that Kirk’s killer came from MAGA’s ranks. Yesterday, President Trump said the government should revoke the broadcast license of networks whose on-air personalities speak too harshly about him.
Since Trump returned to office, the right’s turnabout on speech has been dizzying. Today’s newsletter is about Kimmel’s sanction and the administration’s new approach.
The suspension
Kimmel is the highest-profile person to be punished for what he said about Kirk. But he’s an unlikely figure of the resistance. He got his big break on “The Man Show,” which Julia Jacobs, a culture reporter, calls a “raunchy satire of machismo that often seemed to be only half-joking.” On Monday his troubles began when he mused that the “MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” (How does the suspect map onto America’s history of political violence? Jia Lynn Yang has a great essay today on that question.)
It started as a political problem. A conservative media watchdog posted Kimmel’s monologue on Tuesday morning, and it spread “first as a whisper, then eventually as a shout,” reports Stuart A. Thompson, who covers the flow of information. It rocketed from influencers to radio hosts and Fox News personalities. On Wednesday, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission — who wrote in Project 2025 that the agency “should promote freedom of speech” — told a podcaster that ABC would face consequences. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said.
Then it was a business decision. Advertisers were growing skittish, and ABC employees had received threats. A Texas-based owner of many ABC affiliates planned to pull Kimmel’s show from his stations, write Times reporters who spoke to more than a half-dozen people involved in the saga. Kimmel drafted a monologue for Wednesday night’s show to address the controversy, but when Disney and ABC leaders saw it, they worried it would make things worse. So an hour before the host was set to take the stage, they made a call: “Jimmy Kimmel Live” would temporarily go dark. Network executives were searching yesterday for a way to get him back on TV soon.
Trump sees this as a victory. He said it was the appropriate treatment for someone who “said a horrible thing.” Jim Rutenberg, who covers politics and media, observed: “Far from decrying the silencing of a comedian, Mr. Trump celebrated what he termed a ‘cancellation.’”
The politics
Comedians and pundits are horrified. David Letterman, the longtime late-night host, said yesterday that networks shouldn’t fire people just because they won’t “suck up” to Trump. (He also joked that he’d been “smart enough to cancel myself.”) On his own show, Stephen Colbert called ABC’s move “blatant censorship” and declared, “Tonight we are all Jimmy Kimmel.” The meaning of the suspension was clear, writes James Poniewozik, The Times’s chief TV critic: “Maybe it’s just better to be cautious. Maybe don’t say anything that gives your haters an opening. Maybe don’t say anything rash. Maybe don’t say anything.”
New branding. Trump allies now argue that the freedom of speech doesn’t let you say anything you want. To them, attacking bad ideas isn’t cancel culture — it’s “consequence culture.” Liberals used the phrase for years to justify ostracizing alleged sexual predators during #MeToo and alleged racists after George Floyd’s murder, reports Joseph Bernstein, who writes about online culture. This week, conservatives have taken it up. The difference now is that the government, not activists, is enforcing the consequence.
Context. The Trump administration has coerced many private institutions to bend to its will. Law firms are giving the government free legal work rather than lose contracts. A chipmaker is giving it part ownership rather than face export controls. Universities are axing diversity programs and paying hundreds of millions in fines to restore frozen research grants. Media companies are settling frivolous lawsuits with Trump to avoid the cost and the hassle.
The law
The government has used its power often during Trump’s second term to limit what people can say. Government science agencies have ended grants that mentioned “diversity.” A top Justice Department official said that people protesting the president might have committed a crime.
Advocacy. This week, the president declared that the antifa movement — an antifascist collective that tries to counter the far right, occasionally violently — is a terrorist organization. But it is less a group than an idea, reports Charlie Savage, who covers national security and legal policy. And while the government can designate overseas groups as “foreign terrorist organizations,” there is no domestic equivalent in the law.
Speech. The attorney general has vowed to ban “hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence.” Adam Liptak, who covers the law for The Times, explains what the First Amendment says:
What is hate speech? The usual definition includes racial, ethnic and religious epithets; calls for racial or religious intolerance; and false statements about racial or religious groups. Holocaust denial is the most common example.
Can the government punish it? The Supreme Court says no. The government must protect the freedom to express “the thought that we hate.”
Is America’s approach unusual? Yes. Many other countries ban racial epithets, displays of Nazi regalia and exhortations to discriminate against religious groups. All of that is allowed in the United States.
What about inciting violence? The First Amendment does not protect incitement, but the Supreme Court has defined that term narrowly, requiring a likelihood of imminent violence. Mere advocacy — of violence, terrorism or the overthrow of the government — is legal. The words must be likely to produce violence or lawlessness right away.
If hate speech is legal, why are people getting fired for things they said about Kirk? The First Amendment restricts government activities. But private employers can do what they want.
New safeguards. Democrats plan to introduce a bill to protect people targeted by Trump for speaking freely, reports Annie Karni, who covers Congress. But “there was almost no chance that Republicans would bring such a measure to the floor,” she writes.
THE LATEST NEWS
Politics
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The administration asked the Supreme Court to let Trump remove Lisa Cook as a Federal Reserve governor.
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The E.P.A. said it would keep polluters on the hook to clean up “forever chemicals” tied to serious health risks.
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Tiffany Trump was on an oil mogul’s megayacht while her father-in-law brokered deals. It’s another example of the blurring line between government business and Trump family business. Our colleagues used her Instagram posts to figure it out.
Middle East
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A group of Democratic senators introduced legislation calling on Trump to recognize a demilitarized Palestinian state. It is the first such measure to be proposed in the Senate.
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Israel and Ukraine are shooting down drones with lasers, which are cheaper and more efficient than missiles.
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Before Israel entered Gaza City, it ordered Palestinians to evacuate. But widespread destruction and cramped, limited humanitarian zones make that difficult, as Josh Holder explains in the video below. Click to watch.
Public Health
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Federal vaccine advisers appointed by Robert F. Kennedy voted to limit the M.M.R.V. shot for children under 4. They are set to vote today on whether newborns should keep getting the vaccine against hepatitis B.
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A group of states in the Northeast will issue vaccine recommendations, following their Western peers, a rebuke to the Trump administration’s policies.
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The Trump administration is changing its approach to foreign health aid: It plans to bypass N.G.O.s and make Africa a lower priority.
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Doctors hoped the measles outbreak would persuade reluctant Texans to be vaccinated. Few changed their minds.
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Wildfire smoke could kill an estimated 70,000 Americans each year by 2050, a study found, which would make it one of the country’s deadliest climate disasters.
Immigration
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Eleven Democratic officials in New York — including Brad Lander, the city comptroller — were arrested after they demanded access to ICE detention cells in Manhattan. The cells have drawn complaints of unsanitary and overcrowded conditions.
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A federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from deporting hundreds of Guatemalan children, saying the government had given misleading testimony.
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The Trump administration is reinstating a harder citizenship test.
Tech
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Chinese state media is hailing a TikTok deal as a win-win: In exchange for the app, Beijing could buy itself negotiating room on tariffs, technology and Taiwan, which matter much more to China.
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Nvidia plans to invest $5 billion in its struggling rival, Intel. The companies plan to collaborate on developing chips.
Other Big Stories
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Erika Kirk will lead Turning Point USA, taking over from her slain husband.
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The president of Texas A&M will step down after controversy over a children’s literature course that recognized more than two genders.
OPINIONS
The Fed is part of an economic system that brought about deindustrialization and open borders. Removing its independence would be welcome reform, Christopher Caldwell argues.
Here are columns by Lydia Polgreen on the fixation on transgender shooters and David Brooks on our darkest urges.
MORNING READS
Final rounds for the aunties: A beloved banquet hall in Hong Kong is closing. For the women who push the dim sum carts, and a city that cherishes its food traditions, it’s a terrible loss.
—: In the A.I. age, who’s afraid of an em dash?
Stay vigilant: A Times reporter who has covered countless scams nearly fell for one himself.
Great taste: Marilyn Hagerty, a food columnist for The Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota, died at 99. Her earnest appraisal of a new Olive Garden in 2012 earned her national media attention.
SPORTS
N.F.L.: The Miami Dolphins lost to the Buffalo Bills yesterday in a game closer than its 31-21 score would suggest. Did Miami do enough to quiet the Mike McDaniel firing rumors?
M.L.B.: Clayton Kershaw, the iconic Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander who won three Cy Young Awards, is retiring after 18 seasons. He may be the best pitcher of his generation.
W.N.B.A. playoffs: The Indiana Fever beat the Atlanta Dream to reach the semifinals even though Caitlin Clark and four other players were out with injuries. Las Vegas also advanced, holding off Seattle in a thriller.
OIL ON THE MAT
Looking for something to do in San Francisco? Why not take in a robot fight? At Ultimate Fighting Bots events, humanoid machines duke it out, controlled by humans who operate them with video game controllers.
The android violence is just one of the many new events populating the Bay Area nightlife calendar as the A.I. boom rejuvenates the area. Natallie Rocha writes about how the new generation of tech workers is searching for memorable experiences away from their laptops.
More on culture
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Virginity is on display in Hulu’s new reality dating show, “Are You My First?”
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Thieves stole $700,000 worth of raw gold nuggets from a French museum.
THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …
Layer refried beans, avocado and queso fresco on homemade tostadas.
Read “107 Days,” Kamala Harris’s frustrated account of her campaign.
Build your own HIIT workout.
Care for silk so it lasts a lifetime.
Take our news quiz.
GAMES
Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were aggravating and gravitating.
And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.
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The post What Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension Says About Free Speech appeared first on New York Times.
