MAGA civility cops hold these truths to be self-evident: President Donald Trump and his associates, allies and followers should be able to say whatever they want — no matter how incendiary or racist — but their opponents must follow unwritten rules of decorum, violations of which should be strictly and punitively enforced by actors both public and private.
Take the president’s reaction last Thursday to six congressional Democrats exhorting members of the U.S. military to refuse to follow illegal orders. In a series of social media posts, he described the Democrats’ speech as “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also shared a post by a TruthSocial account saying, “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!”
Trumpists believe they enjoy the God-given American right to say the most transgressive and deliberately offensive things, while characterizing anyone who takes offense as triggered, censorious snowflakes.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended the president’s violent rhetoric in semantic terms. “What I read was he was defining the crime of sedition … That is a factual statement,” Johnson said. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., went further, fully endorsing Trump’s apparent violent threats against members of the minority party, saying, “If this were any other time in history, those folks would be in chains and they’d be in prison.”
Trump, attempting an audacious level of gaslighting, claimed on Friday his words were “not threatening death,” but he added, “I think they’re in serious trouble. In the old days, it was death. That was seditious behavior … modern day is a lot softer.”
Got that? His characterization of the six Democrats’ speech as a crime punishable by death wasn’t a violent threat. Neither was his repost of a social media rando calling for the hangings of elected representatives of the people. Nothing to see here; we should all just move on. (As University of California, Los Angeles law professor Rick Hasen noted, Trump’s strategy of “flooding the zone with s–––” has so desensitized the country that his violent threats were buried on page A16 of Friday’s print edition of The New York Times.)
To be very clear, while the wisdom of elected officials telling the military to disobey orders is fair game for debate, there is nothing seditious about it. As commentator Andy Craig noted, “It is 100% First Amendment protected to openly and unambiguously say members of the military should refuse orders, or desert, or launch a military coup, or whatever else, no matter if it’s insane on the merits or under a normal president.”
And as I’ve noted many times, this is part of the MAGA playbook. Trumpists believe they enjoy the God-given American right to say the most transgressive and deliberately offensive things, while characterizing anyone who takes offense as triggered, censorious snowflakes. But if a schoolteacher discusses antebellum slavery in a classroom, or if anyone quotes some of the late MAGA podcaster Charlie Kirk’s greatest hits (such as “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America”) or characterizes the president as a “fascist,” then that person is an un-American radical extremist who is plainly inciting violence — and must be canceled.
To wit, a stunning report published last week found that more than 600 Americans were “fired, suspended, placed under investigation or disciplined by employers for comments about Kirk’s September 10 assassination, according to a Reuters review of court records, public statements, local media reports and interviews with two dozen people who were fired or otherwise disciplined.”
To be sure, some of these comments were extreme and seemed to celebrate Kirk’s assassination. But others were sentiments that, while unlikely to bring comfort to the departed’s loved ones or fans, certainly didn’t celebrate violence. Some of them were completely innocuous.
Trump, attempting an audacious level of gaslighting, claimed on Friday his words were “not threatening death.”
To cite one demonstrative example, Reuters reported that Joshua Bregy, a climate scientist at Clemson University, ran afoul of online MAGA civility cops’ wrath when he shared a Facebook post (originally posted by a different Facebook account) that read in part: “No one should be gunned down – not a school child, not an influencer, not a politician – no one. But am I going to allow people to make a martyr out of a flawed human being whose rhetoric caused notable damage? Not a chance.”
Before long, Republican South Carolina state lawmakers were demanding Bregy’s firing — threatening to take action to defund the public university if he was not terminated.
The college initially stood by its employee, issuing a statement saying it planned to “stand firmly on the principles of the U.S. Constitution, including the protection of free speech.” But after more Republican lawmakers’ threats — amplified by Trump on social media — the college buckled and fired Bregy for what it characterized as “blatantly unprofessional” speech that was “seriously prejudicial to the university.”
And this is hardly an isolated incident. A Tennessee man, Larry Bushart, was held in jail for 37 days for sharing a Facebook meme of Trump saying, “We have to get over it,” in reference to a recent school shooting. I repeat: An American citizen was jailed for more than a month for sharing a meme that in no way celebrated Charlie Kirk’s killing but instead poked at Trump and other Republicans’ typically blasé attitude toward gun violence.
Meanwhile, the Democrats who said the military shouldn’t follow illegal orders are receiving chillingly specific death threats. One of those lawmakers, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., posted audio of some of those threats to X, and he has asked the Capitol Police to investigate the president’s “intimidating, threatening, and concerning” social media posts that he says are inciting the threats. (The congressman shouldn’t hold his breath, as the Supreme Court inexplicably gave the president almost total immunity for “official acts” in a 2024 decision.)
And on Monday, the Department of War announced on X that it was conducting an investigation into a misconduct allegation against Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz. — a retired Navy combat pilot, a former astronaut and one of the Democrats in the video calling on the troops to refuse to follow illegal orders — and suggested recalling Kelly back into active duty for potential court-martial proceedings.
Ultimately, the MAGA rules of civility are themselves censorship. Only the president and his loyal sycophants get to enjoy truly unfettered free speech — including over-the-top violent rhetoric — while anyone outside the zone of privilege must watch their mouths, or else.
Anthony L. Fisher is a senior editor and writer for MS NOW.