Mary Trump Live

Free Speech for Me but Not for Thee

Donald has been asked many, many times now why Jimmy Kimmel’s show got suspended. And he is positively gleeful about it. Now the truth of the matter is, Kimmel’s show is off the air indefinitely because the chair of the FCC, Brandon Carr, put pressure on ABC to censor a man Donald finds objectionable. Essentially Carr was doing an end run around the constitution because the federal government is not allowed to censor or punish people for exercising their first amendment rights to free speech. Private companies, on the other hand, can fire people at will.

Donald has focused on his assessment that Jimmy Kimmel had no talent—he’s talentless, without talent entirely. That plus low ratings. It doesn’t matter that Kimmel’s show didn't have low ratings. In the second quarter of 2025, Jimmy Kimmel Live! averaged 1.77 million viewers a night, in second place behind Colbert. But Kimmel led in the 18 to 45 demographics, which is the most important for advertisers. I don't think it's fair, therefore, to say Kimmel had low ratings. I certainly don't think it's fair to say that he had no talent, especially compared to the person making that claim.

Donald answered some questions on Air Force one and revealed his actual motives for going after people like Jimmy Kimmel (apparently Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers have also been put on notice). Donald said about the late-night hosts, “All they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that.”

Well, first of all, you fucking moron, yes, they are allowed to do that because this is America and we don't have to be afraid of people like you unless we choose to be.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what corporate media has chosen to do—whether out of fear or unconscionable avarice or both--capitulate to this petty tyrant who is so thin-skinned he can’t handle some jokes a handful of talk show hosts make at his expense. No, for that, we need to erase entirely yet another fundamental right of the American people, regardless of whether it’s enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America.

This is where we are: according to Donald, Jimmy Kimmel's show got suspended, most likely permanently, because he has no talent and he has low ratings. Neither of these things is true. Then he told us quite explicitly that he used the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is responsible for licensing broadcast networks, to force a corporate media company to do his bidding. That's not the way these things are supposed to work.

This is what I have to say about all of that:

According to Donald Trump's own DOJ, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and head of the FBI Kash Patel, Donald’s name appears multiple times in the Jeffrey Epstein files. Multiple times. So, I'd like to know why. Wouldn't you?

Let's dive in.

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I need to say more about Jimmy Kimmel because this is not about what happened to one man. This is about what is happening in this country. There has been outrage and praise and everything in between, but this conversation continues to dominate the news as Donald escalates his assault on free speech and Kimmel remains ousted from his job.

According to a report by ABC, late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off the air hours after a threat from the head of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, called for Kimmel's suspension over comments earlier this week on Jimmy Kimmel Live! about conservative influencer Charlie Kirk's death.

Here is what Kimmel said that resulted in his suspension:

We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.

On Wednesday, Carr criticized the host and the network on conservative commentator Benny Johnson's podcast, saying:

I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action, frankly on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.

Nexstar and Sinclair, two of the largest owners of network affiliates, announced that they would preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! and replace it with other programming, prompting ABC to pull the plug. Donald weighed in, calling the decision “great news,” adding, “that leaves Jimmy and Seth” and “do it NBC.”

That's where we are now. Brendan Carr, of course, is yet another sycophantic hack who is happy to take a hatchet to Americans’ rights to free speech in service to Donald Trump’s pathetically fragile ego. The Trump regime’s descent into full-blown authoritarianism is frightening, but it's not surprising. This is a long time coming, and by that I don't mean eight months. We have been staring down the barrel of this absolutely foregone conclusion for almost ten years. So, if you're wondering how we got here, how one president could exert such a blatantly corrupt show of power, it's what you do with anything relating to Donald Trump: follow the money.

Jake Tapper had a quite excellent breakdown of what’s really going on here. Unsurprisingly, it involves media corporations desiring to get mergers approved. As Tapper explained:

In August, Nexstar, the largest owner of local TV stations in the country, announced that they wanted to purchase their rival TEGNA for more than $6 billion. Now, in order for that deal to go through, Nexstar would need the approval of the Federal Communications Commission, and in fact, they would need the FCC to lift the 39% cap that the FCC has, which is a rule that states no company can own enough TV stations to reach more than 39% of the households in the United States. And this deal going through would violate that cap. The current chair of the FCC, Brendan Carr, earlier this year said that he would be willing to entertain lifting what he called arcane artificial limits on how many TV stations any one company can own. So he's calling on local TV stations to reject the Jimmy Kimmel Show that was posted on Twitter or X at 1:01 PM Wednesday within hours, Nexstar makes the announcement that the company's owned and partnered television stations affiliated with ABC will preempt Jimmy Kimmel because they object to recent comments made by Kimmel. And then shortly after that, ABC television network announced that they were suspending Kimmel's show.

That's the domino effect that's going to continue unless somebody does something. But again, none of this should surprise us. This has been in the works for a very long time, and we can't expect corporate media to stand up, not because they're weak or terrified, but because they're complicit in all of this.

So, what do we do? Well, it seems that Americans across the country are starting to wake up to just how egregiously corrupt all of this is. The outrage over Kimmel's suspension, I'm pretty sure it's a firing, by the way, was swift. And again, I don't think it's simply about Jimmy Kimmel. It's about a growing movement on the right to suppress opposition of all kinds. We're seeing social media backlash, members of Congress, and ordinary people speaking out against members of the Trump regime. More and more Americans understand there needs to be a reckoning.

Representative Eric Swalwell of California, a Democrat, delivered the following message while wearing a Jimmy Kimmel Live! hat:

So, I want to make it clear there's going to be a Democratic majority in just over a year. And to the FCC chairperson and anyone involved in these dirty deals, get a lawyer and save your records because you're going to be in this room and you're going to be answering questions about the deals that you struck and who benefited and what the cost was to the American people because that happened.

I'm a little worried about whether or not they're going to keep their records, quite frankly, because these people don't play by the rules. Why? Because they think the rules don't apply to them. Because in their world there are no rules unless they say so.

Remember during Donald's first campaign when his supporters and followers wore t-shirts that read “Fuck Your Feelings?” They called people on the left snowflakes, and reviled us for “cancel culture,” which wasn’t about canceling people as much as it was about making sure vulnerable people felt safe.

Who's canceling culture now? Who's canceling dissent? Who's canceling the Constitution? Who's canceling the opposition? Only people on the right are doing these things, just as it is the right, the party in power, that is largely responsible for the climate of political violence and violent political rhetoric in this country.

Donald is once again setting the tone and others are following his lead in going after people who criticize him. His sycophants in Congress have been very clear about their willingness to cancel anyone who dares to criticize Charlie Kirk, claiming it is an insult to his memory--even if you just quote him.

MAGA Republicans, the very ones who, as I said, spent years decrying “cancel culture” on the left, attempted to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Rep. Nancy Mace, notorious bigot and transphobe, led the charge. But Omar did not say anything about Charlie Kirk. She did not impugn his character. She quoted him.

According to the Washington Examiner, Omar said:

Charlie was someone who once said, guns save lives after a school shooting. Charlie was someone who was willing to debate and downplay the death of George Floyd in the hands of Minneapolis police. I think he called him a scumbag, right?

According to The Washington Examiner, Mace introduced the resolution after she “accused Omar of celebrating murder and mocking a political assassination.” But the House voted to table the resolution after an extremely close vote of 214 to 213. Only four Republicans joined with the Democrats to kill the resolution.

That's far too close. Rep. Mills of Florida, one of the Republicans who voted with the Democrats, called it a First Amendment issue. Every single person in Congress should have been aware that that is exactly what’s going on here. Rep. Omar simply described Kirk's own positions on certain issues. That's it. It is not her fault, just as it is not ours. That Kirk's positions were offensive and horrifying and, in some cases, dangerous is down to him. Are we not supposed to quote the very words that people on the right admired him for? How does that work exactly?

Well, we're going to find out, one way or another. Democrats must everything in their power to thwart Donald's vengeance against his perceived political enemies. And I say perceived because most people Donald is gunning for aren't his actual enemies. They're critics. Yes, they dislike his horrific policies. They think he's a danger to the American republic, but they are not his enemies. He just sees it that way because they don't like him and they don't flatter him.

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A group of Democrats are planning to introduce a new bill to combat political retribution. The group says the proposed legislation will bolster legal protections for people targeted by Donald simply because they are speaking out and exercising that pesky thing again – their First Amendment rights. The bill is entitled No Political Enemies Act, or “NOPE”, and has a series of legal protections for people targeted for political speech.

NOPE would create a specific legal defense for those targeted for political reasons and allow them to recover attorney's fees if they were subjected to government harassment for expressing their views. Additionally, it would make it easier to sue federal officials for abusing their power to silence critics. That's all well and good, but the problem here is that it’s even necessary in the first place. According to the Constitution of the United States of America, almost all speech is protected, even hate speech. (A quick reminder, we're not even talking about hate speech in this instance. Democrats are not engaging in hate speech. The are attempting to put Kirk’s own statements into context. They are, in some cases, expressing an opinion about somebody who was provocative and in some cases incendiary and polarizing. But even if it were hate speech, that too is protected.)

The United States government is prohibited from censoring or punishing people who engage in protected speech. So, the fact that this bill is necessary is a very clear indication of just how bad things are. But let's not pretend this is new. We have been on this slippery slope since the beginning and nobody has a right to be shocked, although we can certainly be horrified by how quickly we have completely shot past the tipping point.

Donald is always good at finding ways to ramp up attacks on those who oppose him. And earlier this week, reports emerged that he and his allies were planning to go after left-leaning groups, coming after nonprofits that don't align with his mission. One of his goals is to take away their tax exemptions, which is on par with what the Trump regime has been doing since the end of January.

The attacks have begun and Donald denounced on his failing social media platform that he plans to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization. He said:

I am pleased to inform our many USA Patriots that I am designating Antifa a sick, dangerous, radical left disaster as a major terrorist organization. I'll also be strongly recommending that those funding Antifa be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.

Yes, yes. I'm sure. The highest legal standards and practices, of which he knows absolutely nothing. Donald did not even write that post--that has Steven Miller's fingerprints all over it. This is the beginning of criminalizing opposing points of view. The floodgates are open and we have no idea who he might target next.

We know that when it comes to international issues, he has claimed unilaterally and extra-legally that the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua is a terrorist organization, and he has used that designation as a pretext for bombing a bunch of boats into oblivion along with everybody on them.

Do we really think he needs to go after any real leftist organizations? Because, honestly, it’s enough to make the claim against Antifa, which is actually quite clever. First, it suggests that Antifa is an organization when it's not. I don't know about you, but I've never gotten any fundraising letters from Antifa. I've never gotten any material about how to join. Don't get me wrong, if there were an Antifa organization that stood for combating fascism in a nonviolent, organized way, I would be all over it. But, as far as I’m aware, Antifa is really just a loose affiliation of people who hate fascism.

Secondly, though, by designating such a loosely organized entity as Antifa a terrorist organization, Donald can simply proclaim that any individual he doesn’t like is a member of Antifa. That they are, therefor, a terrorist. See how simple that is? See how dangerous that is? See how far gone we are?

We're going to need more than a bill called NOPE to get through this intact. One way to do that is to continue to pound on what's going on here and continue to support independent media, which will hopefully remain beyond the reach of corrupt entities like the FCC. Keep pressing your Democratic representatives to do more, to fight harder, and to recognize just how bad things are, because they are really bad.