On Thursday, the Wall Road Journal reported {that a} staffer on the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) resigned after the paper inquired about some racist social media posts from an account linked to him.
The swift resignation was, a minimum of at first, a breath of recent air. President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly refused to stick to primary societal norms or ethical codes and have confronted little to no penalties. Elon Musk refused to apologize for a gesture that, on the very least, appeared equivalent to a Nazi salute. A senior State Division official as soon as tweeted that “competent white males should be in cost if you’d like issues to work.” It might seem to be public shaming not labored as a guardrail in opposition to corrupt or irresponsible governance.
So when Marko Elez — the 25-year-old staffer who had gained entry to the Treasury Division’s central cost system — felt sufficient strain to stop, it seemed like possibly there was nonetheless a line that Trump and his allies couldn’t cross.
That’s, till the next day, when Elon Musk, who leads DOGE, requested his followers on X to reply this ballot: “Carry again @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements by way of a now deleted pseudonym?”
Vice President JD Vance then shared Musk’s tweet. “I clearly disagree with a few of Elez’s posts, however I don’t suppose silly social media exercise ought to spoil a child’s life,” Vance wrote. “So I say convey him again.” By Friday afternoon, Musk introduced that Elez will get his job again.
To place this all in perspective, right here’s a sampling of the sorts of issues Elez mentioned on-line:
- “Only for the document, I used to be racist earlier than it was cool.”
- “Normalize Indian hate.”
- “You might not pay me to marry exterior of my ethnicity.”
The reality is everybody says one thing they are going to in the future remorse. And it’s cheap to say that folks shouldn’t be punished for issues they mentioned or did as a child — particularly in the event that they’ve demonstrated that they’ve modified and matured. However Elez — an grownup able of serious energy — mentioned all of this stuff throughout the previous yr. The concept he shouldn’t face any penalties for making such offensive remarks, or that he ought to have entry to individuals’s information, is on its face absurd.
However this story is just not actually about Elez. It’s about what Republicans actually imply once they say they imagine in free speech. Musk kinds himself as an outspoken supporter of the First Modification, saying he initially invested in Twitter (which he renamed X) as a result of he needed it to be “the platform without spending a dime speech across the globe.” Vance, in a follow-up tweet, mentioned that he didn’t need his youngsters to fret about whether or not “a flippant remark or a unsuitable viewpoint will comply with them round for the remainder of their lives.”
In different phrases, our speech, nonetheless offensive, mustn’t solely be authorized however socially permissible.
However the Republican Occasion doesn’t actually imagine in that absolutist ultimate. In truth, the primary few weeks of the Trump administration, and the Elez fiasco specifically, have exemplified the contradiction on the coronary heart of the best’s free speech rallying cry. What they really need is the liberty to say essentially the most offensive, racist issues with out getting any pushback, whereas additionally utilizing the facility of the state to suppress speech that they personally don’t like.
The GOP’s conflicting messaging on free speech
The Republican Occasion is just not, by any means, the occasion of free speech.
Over the previous a number of years, the GOP has been the primary occasion keen to wield authorities would possibly to really suppress or punish speech that it deems unacceptable. This ranges from banning books to retaliating in opposition to personal corporations for taking political stances to unleashing legislation enforcement businesses to squash protests. (To make certain, Democrats have additionally used comparable ways.)
The primary three weeks of the Trump administration have additionally underscored how Republicans aren’t the free speech absolutists they declare to be.
Simply final week, for instance, Trump issued an govt order that goals to deport overseas college students who took half in pro-Palestinian protests final yr. A reality sheet in regards to the order says that it’s going to goal “Hamas sympathizers” and revoke pupil visas. “To all of the resident aliens who joined within the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on discover: come 2025, we are going to discover you, and we are going to deport you,” Trump mentioned in an announcement. “I can even shortly cancel the scholar visas of all Hamas sympathizers on school campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like by no means earlier than.”
The Trump administration is taking tangible steps, in different phrases, to not simply discourage some types of speech however to really deport individuals for attending a protest the place individuals expressed opinions the administration finds offensive. So whereas somebody who says “normalize Indian hate” can have a spot in Trump’s authorities with out dealing with vital skilled penalties — as a result of, apparently, youngsters say the darnedest issues — individuals who have views or concepts that Republicans don’t like should not even welcome to enter the nation.
This isn’t merely a case of the everyday hypocrisy we anticipate from politicians. It’s a coherent worldview coming into kind: The Trump administration has been making clear that whereas it has loads of tolerance for not simply radical concepts however outright racist phrases and gestures, it has no room in anyway for dissent or disagreement.
As Vance and Musk put together to convey Elez again to his publish at DOGE, they may argue that he merely made a mistake and, prefer it or not, the First Modification protects all types of speech. And they might be proper — the First Modification largely does.
However the Trump administration actually doesn’t, and the speech they’re personally selecting to guard ought to inform you the whole lot about how they view the world.
