Intimidating Americans Will Not Work

Adrienne LaFrance: “The president of the United States is demanding that American citizens use only the words that please him, and he is punishing those who refuse to do so. This is the essence of his attacks against the Associated Press, which he has barred from the White House for referring to the Gulf of Mexico as ‘the Gulf of Mexico.’ He is now demanding that the news agency acquiesce to his renaming of the body of water. ‘We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,’ Donald Trump said to reporters earlier this week.”

“This is not how it works in the United States of America. In our nation, free speech is a God-given right. It is not something that Trump, Elon Musk, or anyone else can grant or take away. Americans are born with the right to speak freely, and to publish freely. In America, as I have written previously, we are free to criticize the government, which is accountable to the people, not the other way around.”