In America, and Britain, Trump triggers a sinister lurch towards stifling dissent
Nothing says special relationship like keeping your guest of honour locked behind the walls of a castle.
Then again, few guests of honour are like Donald Trump, a thin-skinned narcissist apparently determined to outlaw all forms of dissent internationally.
As Trump settled into his luxurious four-poster bed in Windsor Castle he was on his phone, celebrating the cancellation of a second late-night talk show host in the US.
Bosses at Disney, ABC’s parent company, apparently didn’t think Jimmy Kimmel had said anything that required his sacking. But the fear of Presidential punishment was so great they immediately capitulated.
Kimmel’s bosses said he’d done nothing wrong, but took him off air anyway. Source: Rolling Stone
Nothing must be allowed to bruise Trump’s gigantic ego. So, Keir Starmer’s government rolled out the full pomp and pageantry of the British state to flatter the President’s vanity, but all kept firmly behind closed doors.
Such was the craving for Presidential favour, Windsor was turned into a miniature police state. Drive a car displaying anti-Trump sentiment? Impounded. Project images of Trump hanging out with old friend Jeffrey Epstein? Arrested.
The projected film was the latest from the campaign group Led By Donkeys, who have done similar things dozens of times. “There’s nothing illegal about this,” the group insisted.
“No laws are broken, nobody’s hurt, no property was damaged… it’s just a ridiculous over-reaction.”
Britain’s police ran around, detaining people for the crime of potentially offending a foreign leader, as another of America’s media giants bent the knee to an autocrat who, ludicrously, promised at the start of 2025 to “bring back free speech.”
Starmer won praise earlier this year when he challenged JD Vance’s claim that freedom was in peril in the UK.
The Prime Minister stood next to Trump at Chequers as he again claimed free speech is alive and well, though detaining satirists and arresting more than a-thousand people for holding placards would suggest otherwise.
The free-speech warriors behind this purge are the same people who have turned social media sites into cesspits, and hurled abuse at their opponents for years. When challenged, they have pointed to their First Amendment rights — rights they apparently believe apply only to their friends.
It turns out these brave freedom fighters are even more outraged by “hurty words” than the rest of us.
Trump’s determination to stifle all dissent is only emboldened by the craven capitulation of institutions that should know better, and understand where this will lead. It’s depressing, and disturbing, to see how cheaply the UK’s leaders have been willing to take their own baby steps into authoritarianism.
