Trump to Liberal Universities: ‘Promote Free Speech’ or Risk Losing Federal Funds!

President Donald Trump lived up to his word last week as he signed an executive order that will stop the culture of censorship at public universities.

The executive order is titled “Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency and Accountability at Colleges and Universities” and Trump signed it today at an event featuring many college students who have had their rights violated by leftist campus commissars who are willing to stoop to any level to push their Marxist political ideology.

“Now you have a president that is fighting for you,” Trump said. “I am with you all the way. “Universities that want taxpayer dollars should promote free speech, not silence free speech.”

“These universities have tried to restrict free thought, impose total conformity, and shut down the voices of great young Americans,” Trump added. “Taxpayer dollars should not subsidize anti-First Amendment institutions — universities that want taxpayer dollars should promote free speech, not silence free speech.”

The executive order will give the Trump administration the ability to withhold federal research funding for a particular university or college if they refuse to uphold the freedom of speech of their students as outlined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

“We must encourage institutions to appropriately account for this bedrock principle in their administration of student life and to avoid creating environments that stifle competing perspectives, thereby potentially impeding beneficial research and undermining learning,” the executive order reads.

“It is the policy of the Federal Government to: encourage institutions to foster environments that promote open, intellectually engaging, and diverse debate, including through compliance with the First Amendment for public institutions and compliance with stated institutional policies regarding freedom of speech for private institutions,” the executive order continues.

Trump plans to follow this executive order up with other measures that will further defend freedom of expression against the liberal mob as well. He was joined by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy Devos who wholeheartedly supports his efforts to protect campus free speech from its leftist opponents.

“As students pursue their education, they should never face limits on what, when, where, or how they learn. They should be empowered to pursue truth through the free exchange of all ideas, especially ideas with which they may not agree. Free inquiry is an essential feature of our democracy, and I applaud the President’s continued support for America’s students,” DeVos said today in a press release about the Executive Order.

Public universities are already bellyaching over being forced to abide by the Bill of Rights. These Marxists lie through their teeth claiming that censorship isn’t a problem on campuses when, as a matter of fact, they have been knowingly perpetrating this anti-American agenda for decades.

“We have serious concerns about the false perceptions regarding free expression fueling the executive order. Freedom of expression is alive and well at Vanderbilt, and at research universities across the country. Weaponizing research dollars for political purposes – dollars used to develop vaccines, treatments and innovations that change people’s lives – is misguided and jeopardizes the historic and robust partnership between America’s research universities and the federal government,” Vanderbilt University wrote in an official response to the order.

“The debates that arise from the exchange of diverse viewpoints are a fundamental part of the intellectual journey of scholarship. As a public campus, we uphold freedom of expression and the right of speakers and audiences to be free from undue disruption and interference as protected by the Constitution,” the University of Utah wrote in their official response to Trump’s initiative.

“Any action by the Executive Branch that interferes with the ability of higher education institutions to address this problem themselves is misguided and in fact sets a very problematic precedent,” University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer said in a statement after Trump announced he would be signing this executive order.

One of the worst RINOs in the Senate – Lamar Alexander (R-TN) – even joined the chorus of crybabies deriding President Trump for actually trying to conserve free speech.

“The U.S. Constitution guarantees free speech,” Alexander said in a statement. “Federal courts define and enforce it. The Department of Justice can weigh in. Conservatives don’t like it when judges try to write laws, and conservatives should not like it when legislators and agencies try to rewrite the Constitution.”

These university Marxists and their weak RINO enablers may not like getting called out for their seditious agenda, but they better get used to it. The tide is beginning to turn against these left-wing bullies as they realize there are consequences for refusing to uphold basic American values.

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