[[link removed]]

THEY WANT YOU TO “QUIT DEMONSTRATING”  
[[link removed]]


 

Jeremy Schulman
January 11, 2026
Mother Jones
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Trump’s second-term crackdown on dissent started with
pro-Palestinian activists. It didn’t end there. _

A person flips off Border Patrol agents after they've made arrests in
Minneapolis., Adam Gray/AP

 

TWO DAYS AFTER an ICE agent shot and killed Renée Good in
Minneapolis, Rep. Roger Williams issued an ultimatum
[[link removed]] to the Trump
administration’s critics in Minnesota and beyond.

“People need to quit demonstrating, quit yelling at law enforcement,
challenging law enforcement, and begin to get civil,” the Texas
Republican told NewsNation
[[link removed]]. “And until we do
that, I guess we’re going to have it this way. And the people that
are staying in their homes or doing the right thing need to be
protected.”

 
That’s a pretty clear encapsulation of MAGA-world’s views on
dissent these days. You aren’t supposed to protest. You aren’t
supposed to “yell at” or “challenge” the militarized federal
agents occupying your city. And anyone who wants to be “protected”
should probably just stay “in their homes.” Williams isn’t some
fringe backbencher; he’s a seven-term congressman who chairs the
House Small Business Committee. He is announcing _de facto _government
policy.

For nearly a year, President Donald Trump and his allies have been
engaged in an escalating assault on the First Amendment. The
administration has systematically targeted or threatened many of
Trump’s most prominent critics: massive law firms, Jimmy Kimmel,
even, at one point, Elon Musk
[[link removed]].
But it’s worth keeping in mind that some of the earliest victims of
the president’s second-term war on speech were far less powerful.

Early last year, ICE began arresting and attempting to deport
[[link removed]]
people with legal immigration status—such as Mahmoud Khalil and
Rümeysa Öztürk—who had engaged in pro-Palestinian activism or
expressed pro-Palestinian views. The administration was explicit about
the new policy. Troy Edgar, Trump’s deputy secretary of Homeland
Security, made clear
[[link removed]]
that the government was seeking to remove Khalil in large part because
he’d chosen to “protest
[[link removed]]”
against Israel. Asked about such cases, White House Press Secretary
Karoline Leavitt said [[link removed]]
that engaging in “anti-American, antisemitic, pro-Hamas protest will
not be tolerated.”

It should have been obvious at the time that Trump allies were laying
the groundwork for an even broader crackdown. “When it comes to
protesters, we gotta make sure we treat all of them the same: Send
them to jail,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in March,
discussing Khalil’s arrest
[[link removed]]
on Fox Business Network. “Free speech is great, but hateful, hate,
free speech is not what we need in these universities.”

That’s pretty close to Williams’ demand on Friday that “people
need to quit demonstrating.” It also sounds a lot like Attorney
General Pam Bondi’s widely derided threat
[[link removed]] in September
that the DOJ “will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are
targeting anyone with hate speech.”

Hate speech—regardless of what the Trump administration thinks that
means—is protected by the First Amendment. Bondi can’t prosecute
people for expressing views she dislikes. And ICE can’t deport US
citizens like Good.

But of course, federal law enforcement has more direct ways to exert
control. “The bottom line is this,” said Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Texas
Republican running for US Senate, in the wake of Good’s death.
“When a federal officer gives you instructions, you abide by them
and then you get to keep your life.”

 
Moment’s later, Newsmax anchor Carl Higbie complained
[[link removed]]
to Hunt that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) had “literally told
Minnesotans to get out and protest and that it is, quote, ‘a
patriotic duty.'”

“People are going to go out there,” Higbie warned ominously.
“And what do you think is going to happen when you get 3, 4, 5,000
people—some of which are paid agitators—thinking it’s their
‘patriotic duty’ to oppose ICE?”

* ICE protests
[[link removed]]
* Minnesota
[[link removed]]
* Free Speech
[[link removed]]
* suppression
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Bluesky [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]