Overview:
This threatening of federal funding goes against Free Speech according to critics of President’s Trump’s social media post.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced early Tuesday of plans on Truth Social to cut federal funding for colleges that permit what he described as “illegal protests,” a statement that civil rights groups have condemned as an attack on free speech and assembly.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump reiterated ideas from executive orders he issued during his first term in 2019 and again on January 29. Both orders labeled the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that swept college campuses last year as antisemitic.
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Student-led protests emerged on college campuses across the U.S. and worldwide last year in response to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Many demonstrations centered on universities’ financial connections to companies alleged to support Israel’s military actions in Palestinian territories. Both these protests and pro-Israel counter-protests saw incidents and allegations of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab bias.
Trump has reportedly told Secretary of State Marco Rubio that he would want non-citizen protestors deported. After his social media post, President Trump did not clarify how the White House would define an “illegal protest” or how the government would enforce penalties.
Currently, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the freedoms of speech and assembly.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit organization focused on civil liberties, called Trump’s remarks “deeply chilling” and warned that such threats could intimidate students from engaging in political speech. “The president can’t force institutions to expel students,” the group said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
While the U.S. government does not directly control public or private colleges, the President can use federal funding to push policy objectives through the Department of Education. In January, one of Trump’s executive orders reinstated a similar 2019 directive instructing the Education Department to investigate colleges that receive federal funding if they fail to protect Jewish students and staff from antisemitism.
This social media post comes a day after Linda McMahon was confirmed as the next Secretary of Education.
