Trump Administration Announces Crack Down Against ‘Illegal’ Protests of Israel
Shane Trejo
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President Trump has announced a nationwide crackdown against protests of the state of Israel, in a move that seemingly violates the 1st Amendment of the Constitution.
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Trump’s U.N. ambassador Elise Stefanik celebrated the announcement in an X post.
“Under President [Trump], colleges and universities will be held accountable. Antisemitism and anti-Israel hate will not be tolerated on American campuses. Promises made, promises kept,” Stefanik wrote.
This came shortly after a bizarre announcement from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, that the public health agency would be working to combat “anti-Semitism” as a public health crisis – an absurd distortion of the designated function of the agency.
“Antisemitism – like racism – is a spiritual and moral malady that sickens societies and kills people with lethalities comparable to history’s most deadly plagues,” Kennedy said in a statement. “In recent years, the censorship and false narratives of woke cancel culture have transformed our great universities into greenhouses for this deadly and virulent pestilence. Making America healthy means building communities of trust and mutual respect, based on speech freedom and open debate.”
Additionally, Leo Terrell, a lawyer at the helm of the DOJ’s “Task Force to Combat Antisemitism,” vowed that the administration will imprison Hamas supporters for years for their protests.
“You see all these disorderly demonstrations, supporting Hamas and trying to intimidate Jews? We are going to put these people in jail — not for 24 hours, but for years,” Terrell said during an appearance on Israel’s Channel 12.
Civil liberties advocate Glenn Greenwald noted that these moves by the Trump administration are against the 1st Amendment as they are using government resources to clamp down on political speech.
“You can take the position that there should be no federal funding of universities or there should be, that’s independent of the free speech point,” Greenwald said. “Once the federal government or any government decides to offer a benefit that’s optional … it cannot then condition receipt of that benefit on your expressing a particular view, your affirming a particular view, or your refraining from expressing a political view. This is basic First Amendment doctrine.”
Instead of putting America first, it appears the Trump administration is putting Israel first at the expense of the core constitutional freedoms that all elected officials are sworn to protect.
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