Trump’s Free Speech Warriors Flip on Cancel Culture After Kimmel Joke and Comey Indictment

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This has been a bad week for certain free-speech warriors who once hailed Donald Trump as their champion. Take Martin Gurri, a columnist for the New York Post and Free Press, who gushed in January 2025 that Trump’s return to the presidency signaled the return of “speech that is unencumbered and unafraid.”

Right now, the Trump administration is attempting to cancel a comedian over a joke and jail a critic over a seashell photo. The contradiction could not be more stark.

Trump Demands Jimmy Kimmel’s Firing Over Melania Joke

ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel joked about Melania Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner two days before the event. His line—“a glow like an expectant widow”—was a spoof about the first lady’s much younger age compared to the president. No one took offense at the time.

After the assassination attempt at the dinner, however, critics claimed the joke was a call for murder rather than a jab at a wealthy older man’s trophy wife. Both the first lady and the president publicly demanded Kimmel’s firing.

Yesterday, Trump reiterated the demand in a more forceful post, and the official White House account on X shared it. These calls for Kimmel’s dismissal would be troubling enough on their own.

But they may also carry a threat of retaliation. On Tuesday, one day after Trump and Melania posted about Kimmel, the Federal Communications Commission ordered an early review of all station licenses owned by ABC.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has previously threatened to revoke the licenses of overly critical TV networks. He has also bragged about Trump “winning” against the “fake news media,” citing the departures of several talk show hosts as evidence.

James Comey Indicted Over Seashell Photo ‘Threat’

In a second move targeting undesirable speech, former FBI Director James Comey was indicted over an almost year-old social media post. The photo showed seashells arranged to spell “86 47,” which prosecutors claim was a “serious expression of an intent to do harm” to President Trump.

“Eighty-six” is restaurant slang for removing a customer or canceling an order, though it has occasionally been used to mean “kill.” Notably, there were numerous “86 46” jokes—including T-shirts sold on major shopping sites—under Joe Biden.

Even Jonathan Turley, a self-admitted Comey critic, conceded that the case fails the First Amendment test.

Where Are the Free Speech Defenders Now?

Where are the conservatives who once resisted cancel culture? For example, Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire tweeted in November 2019: “Comedians should not lose their jobs for telling jokes, and professors should not lose their jobs for discussing ideas.”

Today, he has gone silent on the issue.

Similarly, Fox News commentator Kennedy, who once identified as a libertarian, responded to calls for Kimmel’s firing by calling his words “incendiary” and suggesting ABC should “wonder why we’re spending so much money on someone who is so divisive and so unfunny.”