Trump threatens to “shut down” Google for being “very bad” to him

In an interview with FOX Business host Maria Bartiromo, Donald Trump confirmed his commitment to destroy free speech when it’s unfavorable to him and his ego in a tirade against Google where he issued a threat to “shut down” the media giant for being “very bad” to him and his campaign. Specifically, he accused the media giant of blocking some results related to his attempted assassination.

After noting that Facebook representatives had called him to apologize for flagging posts featuring photos of his assassination attempt with fact checks, Trump said, “Google, nobody called from Google,” and the proceeded with issuing his threat (via Salon.com):

“​​Google has been very bad. They’ve been very irresponsible. And I have a feeling that Google’s going to be close to shut down, because I don’t think Congress is going to take it,” the former president told Bartiromo. “I really don’t think so. Google has to be careful.”

Toward the end of the Fox segment, he also mulled stripping Google of its Section 230 protections and praised Elon Musk and X, as Musk throws cash behind a PAC supporting his re-election bid. (Emphasis mine)

If this story sounds familiar, it should for two very distinct reasons.

First, Donald Trump issued a similar threat against Google during his first term. In August 2018, Trump used one of his unimaginative cries of “Fake News” to go after Google for showing “only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media” whenever searching for “Trump News.” He went on to say, “In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories and news is BAD, Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal.”

Further, Trump accused Google [and] others of “suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good [and] controlling what we can and cannot see.” And he concluded with a threat, saying: “This is a very serious situation – will be addressed.”

….results on “Trump News” are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous. Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018

This was not an empty threat. Trump’s economic advisor at the time, Larry Kudlow, said in an interview with reporters that the administration is “taking a look” at the possibility of regulating Google searches.

The second reason this should sound familiar is because shutting down unfavorable news and social media outlets is part of Project 2025 and Agenda 47, as I documented in the article, Project 2025 and Agenda 47: Donald Trump’s plan for a police state.

Under both of these documents, Trump will have the power to rein in the free press, beginning with a renewed emphasis on expanding libel laws to make it easier to sue media outlets for spreading “fake news.” From the beginning of his 2016 campaign and throughout his presidency, Donald Trump demonstrated a clear hatred of the Constitution because of the limits it placed on the power of the presidency and big government. Nowhere was this more evident than in his self-declared war against the news media, or as he repeatedly called it, the “enemy of the American people,” and his repeated threat to sue them out of business.

The press is doing everything within their power to fight the magnificence of the phrase, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! They can’t stand the fact that this Administration has done more than virtually any other Administration in its first 2yrs. They are truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 5, 2019

Illegal? Will be addressed? What does that mean? Why doesn’t this bother the orange Kool-Aid drinkers? I know. Stupid question.

Trump’s mention of stripping Google of Section 230 protection — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects online platforms from certain liabilities for user posts and moderating decisions — is another threat that should be taken very seriously.

Section 230 “reform” was attempted in the waning days of Trump’s first term with help from Attorney General Bill Barr and a few members of Trump’s bought-and-paid-for Republican Party to take down the First Amendment, punish political enemies, and give government more control of the internet . . . mafia style.

Joseph Goebbels-styled propaganda principles against the media helped Trump reap enormous support for his war against liberty and the First Amendment, especially from the Trumpist Republicans. In an Ipsos poll conducted in August 2018 prior to Trump’s threats against Google, 43 percent of Republicans favored giving Trump authority to “close news outlets engaged in bad behavior,” and 48 percent agreed with Trump’s claim that the media is the “enemy of the American people.”

From January 2018 to August 2018, Trump renewed his threat to expand libel laws so he can sue news outlets for writing “bad things” about him, promoted the creation of state-run media, and threatened to revoke credentials for media outlets that reported negative stories about him.

In August 2019, Trump proposed issuing an executive order given the Orwellian politispeak title: “Protecting Americans from Online Censorship.” The order called for the FCC to create new rules to determine when Section 230 should apply and when it shouldn’t.

But Trump wasn’t acting alone in this arena; he had the Trumpist Republican Party doing their part to help him along.

For example, in January 2020 we learned about a proposal made by Sen. Lindsey Graham, a man with a Goebbels-esque history of favoring government control of speech, that made Trump’s attack on the First Amendment look pale in comparison when he introduced the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act. The EARN IT Act was a bill designed to give government complete authority to grant . . . or deny . . . Section 230 protection for social media platforms based on their “compliance” with a set of arbitrary and capricious rules established by the government.

For the Trumpists in the audience who think that my conclusions concerning Donald Trump and his threat to shut down Google along with other news and social media outlets are an overreaction, let me remind you that he is already on the record that he will be a dictator on day one of his second term. In other words, he already intends to act independently of the Constitution.

 

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David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties. He the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty.

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