Trump keeps promise to kill First Amendment’s freedom of the press
We finally found a campaign promise that Trump actually kept. Now what could possibly go wrong?
In the article I wrote a few days ago recognizing Donald Trump as the recipient of the Wile E. Coyote award for his status as a self-proclaimed “genius,” I made a promise to the Trump cult that I would try harder to find good things to say about the president.
Well, as a man committed to keeping his word, I’m happy to announce that I indeed found another good thing to say about Mr. Trump.
Now, it’s no secret to those not drinking the orange Kool-Aid that Trump plays loose with the truth. Heck, it was just a few days ago that Trump confirmed that he lied about rescinding DACA when in a meeting with Democrat leaders, he promised to sign “anything” Congress passes to provide amnesty to DREAMers and making DACA permanent.
However, yesterday Trump renewed his commitment to keep one of his campaign promises when he announced during a staff meeting that his administration will take steps to void the First Amendment’s right to a free press by “fixing” America’s libel laws which had become a “sham and a disgrace.”
“Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values and American fairness. We’re going to take a very, very strong look at that.
”You can’t say things that are false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account.”
Making money by saying false things? Now, I could be wrong here, but isn’t that exactly what Trump and his buddies at the National Enquirer did when they accused Ted Cruise of adultery and Ted’s father of being involved in the JFK assassination, and then using that information to fill Trump’s campaign coffers?
Trump’s promise to eliminate freedom of the press first made headlines at an appearance at a Texas rally in February 2016.
“If I win . . . I’m going to open our libel laws so when they write purposely negative horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.”
I’m not exactly sure why Trump keeps making a connection between our Constitutional rights and making money, but apparently in Trump’s world it’s okay to make money by denying someone their First Amendment rights, but it’s not okay to make money if you exercise them.
During his campaign and into his presidency, Trump has used his “fake news” spiel as a tool to lay down the foundation for his claim that the media was so corrupt that it had become “an enemy of the people.”
Here’s the tweet Trump deleted—he’s seriously calling the media “the enemy of the American people” pic.twitter.com/TxhnjuNL7q
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 17, 2017
Trump’s narcissism and Constitutional ignorance presents a clear and present danger to liberty–he was voted the world’s most oppressive leader toward press freedom by the Committee to Protect Journalists–but he kept his promise nonetheless.
So, we here at the Strident Conservative offer up major props to Donald Trump for keeping a campaign promise . . . G-d, help us.
