This Is What Authoritarian Censorship Looks Like in America

They’re Not Just Coming for Comedians, Colleges and Law Firms. They’re Coming for You Too

The Trump administration needs to stay out of our private lives. There’s a line between governing and controlling, and this administration has stomped all over it.

For decades, Republicans claimed to stand for small government. They said they wanted less interference, more individual rights, and a hands-off approach when it came to how people live and how businesses operate. What they were saying wasn’t true but, that was the brand. That was the promise. Now they’ve dropped the mask.

The Trump administration is reaching deep into the daily decisions of private people, businesses and universities, strong-arming them with threats about funding and regulations. They’re not guiding policy. They’re punishing people and institutions for disagreeing. They’re telling companies who they can hire, what content they can produce, what ideas are acceptable, and what speech is off-limits.

This isn’t leadership. It’s control.

There are countless ways Trump has trampled personal freedom, from stripping women of their right to make decisions about their own bodies to attacking habeas corpus, due process, and the free press, but for the purposes of this article, let me focus on the following in the news right now.

Let’s talk about Stephen Colbert. After nearly a decade on air, CBS announced that “The Late Show” will end in 2026. On Friday morning, Trump didn’t waste a second. He jumped on Truth Social to celebrate. He mocked Colbert, called him “unfunny,” and wished the same downfall on Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel.

What’s behind the cancellation likely runs deeper than ratings. CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, is in the middle of a major merger deal that requires federal approval from the Trump administration. That’s the leverage. That’s the pressure point. Networks know the stakes. If they want their deal greenlit, they need to play ball, clean house, and silence the critics.

Trump is using regulatory power to settle personal scores. He’s shaping media with the same hand he uses to punch down. It’s a vendetta. And it reeks of political blackmail dressed up as entertainment strategy.

Harvard University was the first major target. After campus protests and faculty statements critical of Trump’s foreign policy and domestic crackdowns, the administration moved quickly to choke off federal funding. The message was clear. Dissent has a price. Harvard’s refusal to bend sparked a coordinated effort to punish the school financially and publicly, signaling to every other institution what happens when you challenge the regime.

Brown University was warned it could lose $510 million because it refused to restrict faculty speech and student protests. Columbia had hundreds of millions in grants frozen for declining to fire professors who criticized Trump and for hosting events the administration deemed politically biased.

Cornell is facing a $1 billion funding cut after its board rejected demands to overhaul diversity programs and adopt government-approved curriculum standards. Northwestern stands to lose $790 million after refusing to cancel a climate conference that included speakers who oppose Trump’s energy policies.

The University of Pennsylvania lost $175 million in funding for allowing a transgender athlete to compete in women’s sports and for not issuing a public apology. Princeton had dozens of grants frozen after declining to remove a faculty member who wrote a legal critique of Trump’s immigration executive orders.

These schools don’t work for Trump. And what I shared above aren’t just policy disagreements. These are federal threats tied to ideological obedience. It’s un-American. Universities are supposed to challenge ideas, not conform to a political checklist written by a president with a grudge.

Law firms are in the crosshairs too. Trump has gone after them with the full force of executive orders designed to gut reputations and careers. I was a signatory on two appellate amicus briefs which both prevailed. Some of the concerns shared at the appellate level included the following issues and Constitutional rights.

Perkins Coie was targeted because it represented Hillary Clinton and fought voter suppression laws. Trump revoked their clearances and blocked federal contracts. They sued and won. A judge called the order unconstitutional.

Paul Weiss was hit for its past diversity programs and ties to Trump investigations. They were pressured into doing $40 million in pro bono work and ending DEI policies to get an order rescinded. Covington & Burling was attacked for defending Special Counsel Jack Smith. Jenner & Block got the same treatment because they employed Andrew Weissmann from the Mueller team. WilmerHale was next.

Same pattern. Punish the lawyers for doing their jobs. Intimidate anyone who stands on principle. This is the government trying to decide who gets to practice law.

The behavior doesn’t stop with policies. Trump targets individuals and companies in ways that sound more like middle school insults than presidential leadership. He’s called people losers, mocked products as garbage, and trashed companies that cross him. If someone disagrees with him or doesn’t show him public loyalty, he tries to ruin them.

From attacking car brands and department stores to mocking grieving families and gold star parents, there is no boundary. No dignity. No filter. Just a man who uses his position to tear others down.

This is not someone who should be directing the values of our institutions. This is not someone who belongs in charge of what your business can sell or what your school can teach.

This is the same man who was impeached twice, indicted on 91 felony counts, arrested four times, and convicted on 34 criminal charges. He was found liable for sexually assaulting a woman in a civil case. The appellate court described it as rape. He’s cheated on every wife he’s had, paid hush money to a porn star, and kept lying about it even after the evidence stacked up.

He mishandled the deadliest pandemic of our lifetime. He said it would disappear like magic. He delayed action and defied science. Thousands of Americans died while he spun the truth into nonsense. He refused to accept the 2020 election results, encouraged fake elector schemes, and fueled the violent attack on the Capitol. He hoarded classified documents, then lied about it. He kept secrets that belong to the people and stashed them in bathrooms and ballrooms.

He owes tens of millions in damages for defamation and business fraud. He pardoned January 6th rioters and called them patriots. He’s now running a crypto scam so shady it makes FTX look like a scholarship fund.

This man is the reason our country feels so fractured. He ignites hatred and division like it’s his full-time job. He bullies, grifts, blames, and lies. He doesn’t serve the people. He serves himself. He isn’t protecting the Constitution. He’s dragging it through the mud.

And still, he’s trying to tell us what’s right and what’s wrong.

I don’t need this kind of leadership in my life. I don’t want it near my family, my kids, or my country. I don’t want it shaping the values of our schools or rewriting the rules of our businesses. I don’t want it attacking the legal profession, or silencing comedy, or threatening teachers.

We don’t need a man like this telling us how to live, think, speak, work, learn, or lead.

So speak up. Protest. Write. Vote in the 2026 midterms. Call it out every time. Keep pushing forward.

Because this country belongs to all of us, not just a bitter man with a microphone and a list of enemies.

Mitch Jackson, Esq. | links

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When a president punishes comedians, bullies schools, and targets law firms for doing their jobs, silence feeds the abuse. This isn’t politics. It’s control.

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