\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was clear Donald Trump and his allies would ramp up their crackdown against any and all opposition in the wake of the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk \u2014 and this week, the president\u2019s second administration unleashed its most authoritarian blitz yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Trump administration got late-night host Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s show taken off the air by threatening companies\u2019 broadcast licenses if they continued to run his show. Trump and his team threatened to strip the tax-exempt status of liberal nonprofit groups, while the president called for left-wing activists to be jailed for protesting him at dinner. Trump announced he\u2019ll once again try to designate \u201cantifa\u201d \u2014 America\u2019s disparate anti-fascist movement \u2014 as a terrorist group, with no legitimate basis, clarifying once again where he stands on the whole fascism question.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tMeanwhile, the administration worked toward its goal to deport a legal U.S. resident for speaking out against Israel\u2019s relentless assault on Palestine. Reports trickled out that Trump would fire a U.S. attorney for failing to bring charges against one of his enemies, before Trump publicly called for his departure and he quit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThis ugly, authoritarian week didn\u2019t happen in a vacuum. Trump just last month mused about how Americans want a \u201cdictator,\u201d and the administration now appears to be using Kirk\u2019s shocking murder as an excuse to escalate Trump\u2019s ongoing campaign for total power.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe ramp-up began on Monday, as Vice President J.D. Vance hosted Kirk\u2019s podcast from the White House and huddled with Stephen Miller, Trump\u2019s deputy White House fiechief of staff and the man responsible for leading his mass vengeance campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYou have the crazies on the far left who are saying, \u2018Stephen Miller and J.D. Vance, they\u2019re going to go after constitutionally protected speech. No, no, no,\u201d Vance said, before immediately pledging to go after a network of liberal nonprofits that supposedly \u201cfoments, facilitates, and engages in violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
\n\tDuring the discussion, Miller repeatedly invoked Kirk\u2019s death to justify the effort to shut down liberal groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe last message that Charlie sent me was \u2014 I think it was just the day before we lost him \u2014 was that we needed to have an organized strategy to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country,\u201d Miller said. He added, \u201cWith God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAs the MAGA movement worked to get people fired for sharing negative thoughts about Kirk, conservative media outlets honed in on comments Kimmel made in the wake of his killing \u2014 twisting Kimmel\u2019s words to make them seem like a fireable offense. And on Wednesday, Trump\u2019s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman, Brendan Carr, began issuing explicit threats, demanding that broadcasters take Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/em> off the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSpeaking with right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, Carr demanded that broadcasters tell ABC: \u201c\u2018Listen, we are going to preempt, we are not going to run Kimmel anymore, until you straighten this out because we, we licensed broadcaster, are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCarr added, \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWithin hours, ABC had indefinitely suspended Kimmel\u2019s show and two large broadcast companies, Nexstar and Sinclair, announced they wouldn\u2019t run it. (Note: The companies all have regulatory matters before the FCC.) Sources told Rolling Stone <\/em>that while multiple executives at ABC and its parent company, Disney, did not feel that Kimmel\u2019s comments merited a suspension, they caved to pressure from Carr.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\t\u201cThey were terrified about what the government would do, and did not even think Jimmy had the right to just explain what he said,\u201d a person familiar with the internal situation said on Thursday, calling the decision \u201ccowardly.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThroughout Trumpland and the federal government, there was a heightened sense of glee over their silencing of Kimmel. Administration officials are emboldened by the multiple scalps they\u2019ve now collected \u2014 first Stephen Colbert, now Kimmel \u2014 to the point that they\u2019re confident they have momentum to pressure corporate bosses to get rid of Trump\u2019s late-night nemeses over at other networks.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tTwo Trump advisers told Rolling Stone<\/em> that potential FCC investigations of Comcast are being viewed as a plausible route to pressure the NBC brass into sidelining, or dumping, late-night host Seth Meyers, whom Trump similarly despises.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAides at the White House and Republican National Committee often monitor the latest from liberal late-night shows, including Meyers\u2019 program, to see if there\u2019s any sound bite that Trump and company can quickly exploit \u2014 and that focus has only intensified in the aftermath of the Kirk slaying, two of those aides note.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Trump administration\u2019s threats against broadcasters have come under criticism from some conservatives. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) described Carr\u2019s \u201ceasy way or the hard way\u201d line as being something \u201cright out of Goodfellas<\/em>,\u201d calling it \u201cdangerous as hell.\u201d The editorial board at Rupert Murdoch\u2019s Wall Street Journal<\/em> called out \u201cthe Carr FCC\u2019s abuse of its power.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), on the other hand, has apparently decided the First Amendment is no longer sacrosanct, because someone murdered Kirk.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cUnder normal times, in normal circumstances, I tend to think that the First Amendment should always be sort of the ultimate right. And that there should be almost no checks and balances on it,\u201d Lummis said, according to Semafor. \u201cI don\u2019t feel that way anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTrump, himself, seemed eager on Thursday to threaten more media companies over their coverage as he spoke with reporters on Air Force One, saying that the networks \u201cgive me only bad press\u201d and \u201cmaybe their license should be taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe same day as Kimmel\u2019s ouster, Trump declared that he would attempt to designate \u201cantifa\u201d \u2014 short for anti-fascist \u2014 a terrorist organization. Given that the anti-fascist movement lacks any sort of centralized system of organization or leadership, it\u2019s unclear how the administration would enforce such a designation or the scope of those it would target.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhen an NPR reporter asked Trump on Air Force One how he would target antifa, he said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to see. Did they have anything to do with your network? We\u2019re going to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTrump also this week called on a group of protesters who bothered him to be jailed. Activists from the anti-war group CodePink, recently located the president at Joe\u2019s Seafood near the White House as he ventured out to see the city streets during his military deployment to the nation\u2019s capital. The protesters made it into the restaurant near Trump and shouted at him: \u201cFree D.C.! Free Palestine! Trump is the Hitler of our time!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\tTrump is mad about it. \u201cThey should be put in jail, what they\u2019re doing to this country is really subversive,\u201d he said on Monday, adding that he asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into bringing \u201ccriminal RICO\u201d racketeering cases against them. On Thursday, Trump said of the protesters, \u201cI think they were a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAmid Trump\u2019s attacks on free expression, one of the president\u2019s longest attacks on speech received less attention as it turned more ugly.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tOn Wednesday, it was reported that the Trump administration could soon deport Mahmoud Khalil to Algeria or Syria.\u00a0The administration already jailed Khalil for months after revoking his green card over his pro-Palestine activism. Khalil, whose wife and baby are American citizens, was released in June per a judge\u2019s order. <\/p>\n \n\tThere was news about Trump\u2019s apparent attempt to wield the Department of Justice against one of his most trumpersonal enemies.<\/p>\n \n\tOn Thursday, ABC News reported that Trump planned to fire the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia for refusing to bring charges against \u200b\u200bNew York Attorney General Letitia James, after prosecutors in the office apparently failed to find evidence she committed mortgage fraud.<\/p>\n \n\tJames led the civil fraud case against the Trump family\u2019s business empire. Trump was ordered to pay $355 million in damages in the case last year, before it was tossed last month.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn any other administration, news that the president intended to fire a prosecutor for failing to charge a political enemy would be treated as a massive scandal \u2014 indeed, it\u2019s similar to the scandal that led to the resignation of George W. Bush\u2019s attorney general, Alberto Gonzales.<\/p>\n \n\tTrump is different. When a reporter asked him Friday if he wanted to fire Erik Siebert, Virginia\u2019s acting U.S. Attorney, Trump said, \u201cYeah, I want him out.\u201d He complained about the prosecutor receiving blue slips \u2014 customary endorsements \u2014 from Virginia\u2019s two Democratic senators, whom he called \u201cbad guys.\u201d Siebert resigned afterward.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWith everything going on, it might have been easy to miss the news Trump ordered more strikes on boats in the Caribbean supposedly carrying drugs \u2014 attacks so lawless that John Yoo, Bush\u2019s torture memo author, felt the need to register his concern. \u201cWe can\u2019t just consider anything that harms the country to be a matter for the military,\u201d Yoo said.<\/p>\n \n\tTrump deployed the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee, continuing his militarized crackdown on Democratic-led cities, while his masked goons roughed up a Democratic congressional candidate protesting outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Illinois.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tLate in the day Friday, The Washington Post<\/em> reported that the Pentagon \u2014 under the leadership of former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who\u2019s calling himself the \u201cSecretary of War\u201d \u2014 will now require journalists who want press badges to agree not to gather any information that hasn\u2019t been officially approved for release. That is, of course, a reporter\u2019s job.<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tSpeaking in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump claimed he\u2019s \u201ca very strong person for free speech,\u201d before asserting, as he keeps saying, that 97 percent of reports about him are negative. \u201cThat\u2019s no longer free speech,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s just cheating.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt was a fitting cap to Trump\u2019s very authoritarian week. There\u2019s still Saturday. There is next week and many more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was clear Donald Trump and his allies would ramp up their crackdown against any and all opposition in the wake of the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk \u2014 and this week, the president\u2019s second administration unleashed its most authoritarian blitz yet.\u00a0 The Trump administration got late-night host Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s show taken off the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[8160,376,12585,2379,81,365],"class_list":{"0":"post-22722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-authoritarian","9":"tag-death","10":"tag-kirks","11":"tag-responds","12":"tag-trump","13":"tag-week"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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