Opinion

Trump Says Free Speech Is Only for People He Likes in Chilling Speech

Edith Olmsted
Tue, October 22, 2024 



Donald Trump, who recently led a monthslong smear campaign against the judge overseeing his hush-money trial, the judge’s daughter, and all of his employees, now has a serious problem with people complaining about judges.

During a speech at the 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting in Concord, North Carolina, Monday, the former president took issue with people criticizing judges who appear to like him.

“I actually think it’s illegal what they do,” Trump said, before going on a long tangent about basketball coach Bobby Knight. When Trump finally returned to his point, he explained his plot to limit free speech.


“They play the ref, they start screaming about ‘The judge is no good,’ and ‘This one’s no good,’ and ‘They’re slow’ and ‘They’re lousy judges’ and ‘The judge should be impeached,’ and all of this crap, when you have a brilliant judge that’s doing the right thing,” Trump said.

The Republican presidential nominee is evidently still touchy about Judge Aileen Cannon, whose bias in favor of Trump was apparent throughout the proceedings of his classified documents case. Her unprecedented decision to toss out the felony case by ruling special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment unconstitutional has been criticized by legal scholars.

“And some people will fold a little bit, they’ll say, ‘Hey, I’ll get them off my back, let me just give a bad ruling here or there,’ and some will do that actually but, uh fortunately, most have courage and they understand,” Trump said, suggesting that some judges bend to pressure.

“I really believe it’s illegal what they do, and I know there’s some great lawyers in there who are gonna look at it, because what they do is so obvious, what they’ve done to the Supreme Court, even with the protection of their houses, you’re not supposed to be allowed to march in front. They didn’t stop it,” he continued.

Trump asserted that judges would “give a bad ruling” to silence critics, and specifically mentioned the Supreme Court, which he packed with conservative justices, who tossed him a blanket presidential immunity for official acts and, on Monday, denied a bid from his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who claims Trump and other officials had him placed in solitary confinement as punishment for his tell-all book.

Trump clearly believes a “bad ruling” is any one that does not favor him. Just months ago, Trump went on several tirades against New York state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, his family, and his staff, leading a slew of threats against him that resulted in a gag order being placed on the former president.

Speaking to the room full of Christian voters, Trump promised that he would continue to install conservative judges to protect their interests.

“I will once again appoint rock solid pro-constitutional judges to faithfully interpret the law and the Constitution; the 300 judges that we appointed changed the whole …” Trump trailed off, shaking his head. “I mean, it was so bad, it was so bad.”

Trump’s slate of 234 conservative judges are some of the most influential in the country, and have already sowed chaos. Take, for instance, Texas Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, the only federal judge in Amarillo, Texas. Kacsmaryk was responsible for a ruling that threatened mifepristone access nationwide. Now conservatives are going out of their way to file their suits in his district.