Under A Trump Administration, Your 1st Amendment Rights are Under Attack - Here's Why

Those on the more extreme side of the right like to call the left 'snowflakes' and 'politically correct'. They like to use that as insults and connect that to why America is 'becoming too weak'. This has been the main attack strategy type for those who partake in it, as it's an easy target. Something that, when questioned on it, they can double down safely and may come out of the argument looking like the winner. But most of them, they are hypocrites, having just elected the biggest snowflake of them all: Donald J. Trump.

Donald Trump is most known for his controversial sayings, grouping all Mexicans together calling them rapists, murderers, and bringing drugs with assuming "some are good people". He's called for and has tried multiple times to instate a ban on Muslims from entering the country. He's also said things like this quote from John O'Donnell's memoir from being President of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino:

"I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and at Trump Plaza — black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. Those are the kind of people I want counting my money. Nobody else. . . . Besides that, I’ve got to tell you something else. I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is; I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”

The President has made an image for himself that shows that he doesn't care about what today's society thinks is acceptable, and that's what a lot of his supporters have said they like about him, how he "tells it how it is and doesn't care what you think". This image is very false.

On numerous occasions, Donald Trump has sued over less than flattering things said about him. He has sued The Onion in 2013, a "news source" well known for its satire. The source wrote an article claiming that he wrote it and was titled "When You're Feeling Low, Just Remember I'll Be Dead In About 15 Or 20 Years". As the source constantly does mocking commentary on popular figures such as their most recent commentary article "I Believe My Experience Working On Films Such As ‘Seven,’ ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ and ‘World War Z’ Would Make Me A Valuable Asset To Your Next Action Movie" by Brad Pitt, it is known that the claimed authors didn't write it. But Trump didn't care, it hurt his feelings, so he threatened to sue.

Another situation was in 1988 with Rosie O'Donnell who claimed that he was bankrupt. Although Donald Trump has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy 6 times, in 1988, he had no bankruptcies under his belt. However, his thin skin didn't allow him to brush off the comment, as he then threatened to sue her and talked about it on ET:

"[O'Donnell] said I was bankrupt. I never went bankrupt, so probably I'll sue her. Because it would be fun. I'd like to take money out her fata** pockets."

He's also threatened to sue Bill Maher over a 'breach of contract', as the comedian offered Trump 5 million dollars if he could prove he wasn't the wasn't the love child of his mother and an orangutan. Trump then showed his birth certificate and made the threat.

But perhaps the most startling lawsuit he's made was against Timothy O'Brien in 2009 over O'Brien's book, TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald. Trump sued on the basis of "actual malice" after O'Brien cited three unnamed sources saying that Trump's net worth was between 150-250 million dollars. The suit actually made it to court, unlike the others above. In court, Trump claimed to cite his feelings that change day-to-day that determines his net worth. This is Donald Trump's actual words:

"Yes, even my own feelings, as to where the world is, where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day. Then you have a September 11th, and you don't feel so good about yourself and you don't feel so good about the world and you don't feel so good about New York City. Then you have a year later, and the city is as hot as a pistol. Even months after that it was a different feeling. So yeah, even my own feelings affect my value to myself."

Anyone with any amount of common sense knows that a net worth isn't determined by "feelings", so we'll give Trump some credit here, whether that's due credit is debatable, but let's continue. This comment about his net worth got under his skin, and with the knowledge that Trump lies about his net worth (he's inflated it to an excess of 10 billion dollars when Forbes and other sources can only calculate 4.5 billion), this could have a grain of truth to it. But nonetheless, criticism seems to be a microaggression of his. Needless to say, the case was thrown out by the judge.

In one of his rallies, Trump promised to open up the libel laws in this quote:

"I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.”

The laws he's mentioning are the exact laws that prevent him from suing the people who write things about him that he doesn't like whether that be true or false, although spreading rumors of people like Barack Obama, when Trump became a prominent speaker of the birther movement that claimed that Obama wasn't born in America and asked for birth records and the short and long forms of the former president's birth certificate. Obviously, Obama let them babble on while releasing the information they wanted, and it took until last year for Trump to finally admit that the President was born in the U.S. That was a case that, should the former president have taken Trump to court over, likely would have won on the account of slander. However, Obama decided not to stoop to Trump's level, and left it at that, which also included some mockery at a White House Correspondent's Dinner.

But back to the topic, Trump wants to sue those who write unflattering pieces or say unflattering things about him, and has started this already. The Trump Administration has taken a hostile position towards the media, dubbing most of them "fake news" whenever something he doesn't like is written. This is dangerous as his base listens to that and agrees with it. Trump is making his base discredit anything negative about him and take anything positive about him as cold hard fact.

He has also tried to shield himself and the administration from the criticism of the media with the help of Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts" by giving us different accounts on almost any scandal. Currently, Trump is under investigation for the Russia scandal, not under investigation for the Russia scandal, and doesn't know if he is under investigation by his current attorney Jay Sekulow. The administration floated ideas about limiting the number of press briefings or moving them to another building. Earlier in the year, the White House banned certain media outlets for the day and faced heavy scrutiny. They're paving the way for the media to be cut from the White House and want the only "true" news to come from the administration itself. We already know how this can be disastrous.

He has even refused to go to allying countries in fear of protests, talking to British Prime Minister, upset that the citizens of the U.K do not like him, and has said that he will not go to the country as long as the people don't like him.

And it isn't just Trump, there are those on the right who are also "snowflakes". Greg Gianforte, a candidate for a Montana House special election who ended up winning, body slammed a reporter who asked him about healthcare on the eve of his election. In at least 18 states, Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation to crack down on protesting. Rod Blum, a republican congressman from Iowa, walked out of an interview in which a reporter asked him if he would take money from a republican outside his district. Every year, the conservative news outlet Fox News talks about a "War on Christmas" whether that be Starbucks choosing a more simple design for their coffee cups for the season or that be saying "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" because it's not like people celebrate other holidays from Christmas.

This is dangerous, as these are the people in power. But they'll still call the left "snowflakes" when their brand of political correctness is far more toxic than anything the left can stir up.