By Paul Craig Roberts - March 10, 2025

President Trump has given every indication that he is as concerned with Israel’s interest as he is with the interests of MAGA Americans. I have expressed the hope that Trump’s sickening kowtowing to Israel is a strategy to keep the Israel Lobby off his back until he can deal with other opponents who stand in the way of his domestic agenda. I still have this hope, but it has been shaken by the Trump administration’s sacrifice of constitutionally protected free speech in order to protect Israel from criticism.

Last Friday the Epoch Times reported that the Trump administration had cancelled $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University for failing to act on allegations of anti-semitism. The Trump administration’s “Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism” consists of the departments of Justice, Education, Health and Human Resources, and the General Services Administration. The members of this task force are well positioned to ingratiate themselves with Israel, which can easily result in well-enumerated positions after their time in government is over.

What does the Trump task force mean by “anti-semitism”? It means protests against Israel’s destruction of Palestine. It means that no matter how horrific Israel’s war crimes and no matter the ICC’s indictment of Netanyahu, for students and faculty to protest genocide or mass murder, if Israel is the perpetrator, is “anti-semitic.” It is OK to protest against other countries, but not against Israel.

Protests against Israel’s actions are equated with harassment and persecution of Jewish students at Columbia. This equation implies that Jewish Americans identify with Israel and not with the United States. Does an immigrant from England feel harassed and persecuted if Americans protest against England? President Trump has branded protests against Israel “illegal protests.” In other words, Trump is saying that the exercise of free speech if Israel is the target is illegal because it is anti-semitic. Protesters can say whatever they wish about Americans, Russia, China, Muslims, and Palestinians, but not about Israelis.

Trump is also guilty of conflating Israeli citizens with American Jewish citizens. If Trump applied his Israeli standards to all ethnicities, no one would be able to express any criticism and protest any action by any government.

Trump declared: “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on … the crime, arrested.” Trump did not explain how the First Amendment became illegal. Does his dictate apply to Black Lives Matter and Antifa, to LGBTQ protests?

Do Trump, the DOJ and other departments realize that they have criminalized a constitutionally-protected right if that right is used to protest Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinians? In the United States is it now illegal to protest genocide if Israelis are the perpetrators?

I was surprised that Columbia, a wealthy private university, was receiving $400 million in US taxpayers’ money. But it turns out that $400 million is only the tip off the iceberg. The Epoch Times reports that Columbia “holds about $5 billion in federal grant commitments.”

This is big money even for Columbia. In response to the money threat, the university’s administration accepted the Trump administration’s destruction of the First Amendment and quickly got on board with the Trump administration. Columbia announced that its administration is “fully committed to combatting antisemitism” and “looks forward to ongoing work with the new federal administration to fight antisemitism.”

Trump and his supporters do not recognize the blatant contradiction between suppressing free speech and Making America Great Again.

America’s greatness did not come from tyranny. America’s greatness resides in the civil liberties guaranteed by the US Constitution. It is disheartening to find the First Amendment under assault by the Trump regime.

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