The Dictatorship
Marco Rubio’s social media order shows the blatant hypocrisy of Trump’s ‘free speech warriors’
President Donald Trump is running headlong into his radical reimagining of America — one in which freedom of speech, basic civil liberties and equal protection under the law are privileges to be bestowed by the state, rather than inalienable rights for everyone. At the same time, he’s also made the country less safe and the government less accountable to the people.
Trump does not believe he is constrained by the law, and the Supreme Court seems to agree, having granted the president immunity for almost any official action.
In less than three months, the president and his administration have fired inspectors generalused the threat of government sanctions to compel law firms and universities into making payoffs and curricula changeslaunched speech-chilling investigations into media companiesequated protests against a foreign government’s war (a war that’s unpopular even among that government’s own citizens) with support for terrorismand deported, without due processinnocent people present in the U.S. legally. And that’s hardly a comprehensive summary.
It seems like a lifetime ago, but it has been barely more than two months since Trump pardoned nearly every Jan. 6 rioter — including those who attacked police and threatened to murder the vice president, and the leaders of neo-fascist militant groups who argued in court that Trump incited the assault on the Capitol.
Trump might be obsessed with projecting what he views as “strength,” but in an incredibly short period of time, he’s made America increasingly vulnerable to terror and cyber attacksviruses that could launch another pandemic and tanked millions of people’s retirement funds.
Beginning in the summer of 2015, when it was clear that Trump’s candidacy was not a fluke and that he could win the 2016 Republican nomination, I anxiously wondered for years what Trump would do in a “Black Swan” situation, like a major terror attack. I don’t really wonder anymore — because he’s already doing it.
The New York Times and The Handbasket reported this week that Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a cable to diplomats ordering them to scrutinize visa applicants’ social media for any criticism of the U.S. and Israel. “This may be evident in conduct that bears a hostile attitude toward U.S. citizens or U.S. culture (including government, institutions, or founding principles). Or it may be evident in advocacy or sympathy for foreign terrorist organizations. All of these matters may open lines of inquiry regarding the applicant’s credibility and purpose of travel,” the cable reportedly reads.
We’re only weeks removed from the Trump administration using a very loose definition of “support for Hamas” as a pretext for deportations of legal immigrants. But does the administration also view “sympathy” for Gazan civilians — suffering in unspeakable conditions as a result of the Israel-Hamas war — or criticism of the Israeli government to be “advocacy or sympathy for foreign terrorist organizations”? The answer is almost certainly: yes.
How about a legal permanent resident, not a pro-Palestinian activist, expressing criticism of Trump and his administration? Would that constitute “a hostile attitude toward U.S. citizens or U.S. culture (including government, institutions, or founding principles)”? Again, almost certainly: yes.
Presumably, Trump supporters critical of the so-called Deep State — composed of U.S. government and institutions — would receive a pass. The same likely goes for MAGA thought leaders who reject some of America’s founding principles — like its opposition to monarchy.
We have plenty of reason for concern that a Trump-led government might exploit the trauma and chaos of a crisis to deny American citizens their rights.
Trump’s deputy chief of policy, Stephen Miller, defended the administration’s position on denying due process to immigrants on Fox News earlier this week: “They have the temerity to say that every single invader should get their own individual judicial trial before they are deported. One at a time, each one gets a one million-dollar trial in front of a communist judge to decide whether or not we can send them home. How about, ‘Hell no.’”
But due process doesn’t necessarily mean the accused stands trial. It does mean the government has to at least give you the opportunity to say something like, “I’m not a violent gang member! I’m a law-abiding, tax-paying, legal resident with a family here.” And it means agents of the state have to actually check out that claim before they deprive you of your civil rights.
Trump — a convicted felon whose lawyers used his rights to due process to drag out legal proceedings long enough for the indictments to become moot by his re-election — leads an administration that conducts arrests and deportations without due process and ignores court orders. His administration is already claiming war powers under the Alien Enemies Acteven though we are not at war.
But if this country were hit by a major attack, we have no reason to expect the Trump administration will consider itself restrained by the Constitution, or that “suspects” will be afforded due process. We do, however, have plenty of reason for concern that a Trump-led government might exploit the trauma and chaos of a crisis to deny American citizens their rights, if they’re deemed “the enemy” by this rogue administration.
Trump does not believe he is constrained by the law, and the Supreme Court seems to agree, having granted the president immunity for almost any official action. He and his allies are already musing about ignoring the Constitution and pursuing a third term in the White House. Think about that kind of unchecked power being used after a terror attack. A grieving, frightened populace could be frightened into surrendering whatever civil liberties they have left. And even if they don’t, Trump could potentially suspend them anyway — just as he is now, when we’re not at war.
As unsettling as the Trump administration’s actions have been, it has provided a helpful reminder that civil liberties, due process and free speech are meant to apply to all Americans — and everyone else here legally.
It’s equally instructive to watch a reactionary administration — whose members absurdly cosplay as “free speech warriors” — mimic the same excesses of left-wing activists and politicians who advocated for the government and other authorities to be the arbiters of “hate speech” and “disinformation.” You can replace those words with “terrorist sympathies,” but the impulse is the same. The censor is certain they possess the absolute truth.
To be very clear, the left-wing campus “cancel culture” of roughly the past decade cannot remotely be conflated with what the Trump administration is doing. While many expressions of recent progressive campus activism have been counterproductive, illiberal and hypocritical, left-wing cancel culture never sent masked federal agents in plainclothes to abduct a grad student off a city street in broad daylight over an op-ed protesting a foreign government.
Authentic free speech and civil liberties advocates have consistently tried to remind Americans that the right to express what some people might consider to be truly horrible things is the entire point of free speech. Popular speech needs no protections. Unpopular speech does. And right now, the government has a frighteningly overbroad view of what speech it deems unacceptable. It also doesn’t believe it’s constrained by the law or the courts or distinctions between war and peacetime.
Imagining what this administration would do in the event of an actual act of war should chill the blood of anyone paying attention. The Trump administration is cancel culture with a secret police force and unlimited power.
Anthony L. Fisher is a senior editor and writer for BLN Daily. He was previously the senior opinion editor for The Daily Beast and a politics columnist for Business Insider.
The Dictatorship
Lawsuit seeks to stop the UFC fight on the White House South Lawn for Trump’s birthday
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal lawsuit seeks to halt the upcoming UFC fight card on the White House South Lawn in a mixed martial arts show timed for President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and part of the celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
The filing Saturday by the Public Integrity Project on behalf of two Virginia residents contends the Trump administration’s authorization of the June 14 event was unlawful. The lawsuit says such approval violated National Park Service regulations prohibiting sporting events on federal parklands, Congress did not consent to the towering arch overlooking the event space and no environmental review was conducted before the construction.
“This is fundamentally a private, commercial, corrupt use of our most sacred national monuments for private gain,” said Brendan Ballou, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “And that is what is motivating this lawsuit.”
The White House said in a statement that the legal challenge was “an obstructionist, baseless, and dilatory” attempt to prevent Trump from hosting the fight and that the event was “no different than the various other White House-hosted events on the South Lawn and properly permitted events on the Ellipse and National Mall throughout the year.”
UFC did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.
Crews are erecting an octagon-shaped cage on the South Lawn. Trump has said the finished UFC project will feature “a 5,000-seat arena right outside the front door of the White House.” Additional large screens broadcasting the fights will be set up in a park at the nearby Ellipse, and the UFC has said it plans to issue as many as 85,000 free tickets to accommodate spectators at both locations.
The octagon and surrounding structures are the latest project in the White House building boom Trump is leading.
In an explosive interview with NBC aired Sunday, President Donald Trump cut the grilling short and left the set after peppering “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker with insults.
“You’re either crooked or you’re stupid,” Trump told Welker, who kept a cool demeanor despite the president’s barrage of disparaging slurs.
Moments before he attacked her, Trump — without providing any evidence — said he believes elections in the U.S. are rigged. Then he lambasted television news networks, singling out NBC, CBS and ABC.
“They’re crooked just like you’re crooked, your press is crooked. And ‘Meet the Press’ is crooked,” Trump said.
“To be fair, I’m not crooked,” Welker shot back. “But let’s continue.”
“Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” the president told Welker, who is the second woman and first Black journalist to helm the network’s flagship program.
Trump added, “Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”
It was not the first time Trump has berated a female journalist on the job covering his presidency.
In November 2025, he told Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey to stop talking, saying, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.” One month later, he told ABC’s Rachel Scott she was “the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place.” Last month, he called MS NOW White House reporter Akayla Gardner “a dumb person” for pointing out that the cost of his White House ballroom project had doubled since it was first announced.
He has also repeatedly lashed out at CNN’s Kaitlan Collinscriticizing her for not smiling enough.
The wide-ranging interview, which was taped last week on a farm in Wisconsin, was interrupted by the loud sound of heavy rain on the metal roof of the barn where they met. Welker questioned Trump on his war with Iran, his “anti-weaponization” fund and the upcoming midterm elections.
On his nearly $1.8 billion fund aimed at compensating people who say they were wrongly prosecuted, including Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, Trump said “people were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization. Many of those people should be compensated.”
He described the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as people who were “being ushered into the building” by law enforcement.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the fund last month and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said last week the administration would not be moving forward with the fundwhich faced bipartisan backlash.
When asked if the administration would pursue other avenues to revive it, Trump said he does not know what will ultimately happen and called Welker and her network “the fake dirty press.”
Despite campaigning on a promise to end foreign wars, Trump denied that he made such statements. He characterized the Iran war, launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28, as necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
When asked about the rising cost of living as a result of the war, specifically gas and fertilizer, Trump chastised Welker.
“Are you ready? Am I allowed to talk? You keep asking questions and you don’t listen to the answers,” he said.
“I love the farmers and the farmers love me,” Trump said, adding that prices will come down after the war.
Welker suggested to her viewers Sunday that she and the president had a cordial conversation Saturday, saying they both “acknowledged the complications” posed by the rain. “He agreed to sit down with me for another ‘Meet the Press’ interview,” she said.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
Iran said visas were denied to key members of its national soccer team ahead of the World Cupwhich a U.S. official insisted was necessary so that Iran does not try to “sneak terrorists into the United States.”
In a post on Xthe Iranian embassy in Turkey said “visas were denied to a large portion of the managerial and executive staff, technical advisers, and others” on its team.
“You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level,” the embassy said, accusing the U.S. of the “worst possible form of politically biased interference in sport” and “depriving Iran’s national team of its right to play in the World Cup under normal conditions.”
Iranian officials are accusing the U.S. government of violating FIFA regulations and breaching its obligations as one of the host countries of what is widely regarded to be the biggest sporting event in the world. The diplomatic standoff between the two countries comes just days before the World Cup is set to kick off and more than three months after the U.S. and Israel waged war against Iran.
A Trump administration official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the subject told MS NOW in a statement that the visas “necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff, have been issued.”
The official added, however, “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.”
The statement from the Iranian Embassy in Turkey came in response to a post on X by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack praising embassy staff for processing visas for the Iranian national team.
According to The Associated Presssome of the team’s officials have not received visas to enter the U.S., which is co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico and Canada. Games are set to begin Thursday.
Problems with getting U.S. visas had already led Iran to move its World Cup training base from the U.S. to Mexico. But Iran is still listed on the official World Cup schedule to play its first two games in Los Angeles on June 15 against New Zealand, and against Belgium six days later before heading to Seattle to face Egypt.
The Iran Football Federation’s secretary-general and its vice president were among 14 staff and officials without U.S. visas, AP said, citing Iranian state television. The federation reportedly accused the U.S. of “vindictive behavior.”
Emily Hung contributed to this report.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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