Episode 72: From free speech advocates to critics: The Trump administration’s new rhetoric promotes support for censorship among Trump voters

About this episode

The episode discusses how the Trump administration's rhetoric has shifted from advocating for free speech to supporting censorship, particularly among Trump voters.

**Paper:** [From free speech advocates to critics: The Trump administration's new rhetoric promotes support for censorship among Trump voters](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2532084123) **Authors:** Matthew E. K. Hall, B. Tyler Leigh, Brittany C. Solomon **Journal:** Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2026 **Why it matters:** The study offers rare experimental evidence — using real, not hypothetical, elite rhetoric — that partisan cues can meaningfully erode public commitment to one of the most widely endorsed democratic norms in the United States. --- **Summary** Following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Trump administration's messaging shifted from championing free speech to explicitly endorsing restrictions on it — an unusual move for a sitting president. Researchers at the University of Notre Dame seized on this as a natural experimental stimulus and conducted a pre-registered survey experiment (meaning hypotheses, sample sizes, and statistical models were publicly locked in before any data were collected) with 13,305 quota-matched U.S. adults in October 2025. Participants were randomly assigned to read real anti-speech quotes from…

People in this episode

Host: Raymond Ruff

Topics covered

• free speech
• censorship
• Trump administration
• partisan cues
• democratic norms
• public opinion

Keywords

• censorship
• free speech
• Trump
• public opinion
• partisan cues
• democratic norms
• survey experiment

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Trump administration, University of Notre Dame

Books & works: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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