I ‘brought back free speech to America’: Trump boasts in Congress after he bans ‘illegal’ protests

In his first address to Congress, Donald Trump claimed he has “stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech to America.”

On Tuesday night, Washington time, Trump held his first address to the joint session of Congress on the Capitol Hill.

Trump laid out his vision for the next four years of his presidency and revised the policies of his administration during his seven weeks in office.

The claim he made came immediately after his threat to defund any school that held or allowed what he dubbed “illegal” protests.

Trump has signed executive orders that threaten to deport students who take part in pro-Palestine and anti-genocide protests.

His administration has announced a list of schools that will receive visits from the Department of Justice over their handling of campus protests.

Trump has plans to defund schools that teach “discriminatory equity ideology,” which includes teaching basic facts about racism in the US history like the idea that “the United States is fundamentally racist, or discriminatory.”

He celebrated his administration’s efforts to “remove the poison of critical race theory from our public schools.”

The Critical Race Theory is an academic field that investigates the relationships between social conceptions of race and ethnicity, social and political laws, and mass media.

Trump has accomplished these tasks by ending federal environmental protections for minority communities, making it easier for employers to discriminate based on ethnicity and race.

He has ordered his administration to end programs that provide mental health support for homeless children. 

Furthermore, he has also eliminated civil rights work and diversity and equity initiatives across federal agencies.

Trump threatens to deport, arrest pro-Palestine students for protests

Trump has threatened to halt federal funding for any college or university that allows “illegal protests”, saying he would either arrest or deport students who participate in such demonstrations.

Democrats disrupt Trump’s congressional speech

A number of House Democrats showed their dissatisfaction with Trump’s return to Congress on Tuesday with a series of disruptive protests.

The bluster began just minutes into Trump’s joint address to Congress, when Representative Al Green, a 77-year-old liberal from Houston, stood from his seat. He heckled Trump that despite his claims he had no “mandate.” 

Several other Democrats stood and turned their backs on Trump to display a one-word message on the back of their shirts, “Resist.”

Democratic lawmakers Jasmine Crockett, Ayanna Pressley, Lateefah Simon and Maxwell Frost left the chamber on their own accord.

Some Democrats in the chamber held up signs throughout Trump’s speech that read, “Musk Steals,” and “Save Medicaid.”

Despite sporadic protests, the majority of the Democrats sat in silence throughout a considerable part of Trump’s address.

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