The war on free speech is continuing with Elon Musk calling for a “long prison sentence” for CBS reporters for hurting Trumps feelings.
If there is one thing that the Trump regime cannot tolerate, it’s speech of any kind that they personally disagree with. For the far right, free speech is only acceptable of the Trump regime agrees with it. If they disagree with that speech, well, then those making that kind of speech should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. This has played out even on the lead up to the general election.
Before the election results dropped, convicted felon, Donald Trump, called for the jailing of journalists. Things escalated when that was followed up by a legal threat against the New York Times and Penguin Randomhouse.
Following the election, an organization critical to the Trump takeover of America, The Heritage Foundation, said that they were planning on doxing Wikipedian’s for posting things they personally disagree with. As that happened, Jim Jordan and Elon Musk started weaponizing the government to silence criticism.
More recently, US supreme leader, Donald Trump, silenced the Associated Press for daring to accurately call it the “Gulf of Mexico” as opposed to calling that body of water the “Gulf of America”. For Trump, disagreeing with him is one of the highest crimes of the land and will not be tolerated.
Today, we are learning that Musk is now reiterating calls to jail reporters for the crime of publishing factual statements that hurts the Trump regime’s feelings. From Huffington Post:
Elon Musk, President Donald Trump’s billionaire ally, on Sunday repeatedly attacked CBS’s “60 Minutes,” suggesting the team behind the news program deserves a “long prison sentence” for what he described as their efforts to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
Musk appeared to take issue with a report from Sunday’s episode focused on what the Trump administration’s moves at the U.S. Agency for International Development could mean for the future of other government agencies.
“60 Minutes” posted a graphic on its account on X, formerly called Twitter, featuring a quote by former USAID administrator Andrew Natsios, a Republican, refuting the Trump administration’s claims that the agency needs to be reformed to cut out massive fraud.
“The most accountable aid agency in the world is USAID,” Natsios said.
Musk, who ignored the show’s request for an interview, replied to the post, citing a clip of the unedited interview “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker taped with Vice President Kamala Harris in the fall, which is the subject of a lawsuit Trump brought against CBS.
“60 Minutes are the biggest liars in the world!” Musk said. “They engaged in deliberate deception to interfere with the last election. They deserve a long prison sentence.”
Worth noting is that CBS was among the first targets of the Trump regime for petty retaliatory measures.
While there is the obvious point that exercising your first amendment rights and publishing commentary that others don’t like isn’t necessarily a crime in and of itself, we are also in an era where the rule of law really doesn’t seem to matter that much any more. After all, it’s no secret that the Trump regime is ignoring court orders at this point in time, sparking many to say that the US is now well into a constitutional crisis. This along with that Supreme Court ruling last year saying that the president is basically above the law so long as what they do is an official act (which could mean pretty much anything). So, really, the rule of law is kind of diminishing in the US as we speak.
Either way, this is the latest piece of evidence on how much the Trump regime hates free speech and is actively working on stamping it out. In their minds, any speech they happen to agree with is protected speech. Any speech that they disagree with is a punishable offence. This just so happens to be the latest example of this in action.
