Does Trump Deserve to be Gagged?

Well, here I go again, sitting down at my laptop to exercise my 1st-Amendment ‘right’ to free speech — the same ‘right’ probably being exercised right now by Donald Trump. In fact, the only difference between what I’m doing and what Donald is doing is that what I say will go on my Medium blog, what Trump says will go on his Truth Social website.

But if I want to write something about how so-and-so is a scumbag, nobody’s going to get upset. On the other hand, if Trump puts something on his website about how the daughter of the judge in his hush-money trial in New York is a scum bag, he could wind up in jail.

How come him but not me? Since when does the 1st Amendment all of a sudden only apply when you’re not about to be facing a judge and a jury in a court of law to defend yourself against a criminal charge?

Actually, I would think that the so-called ‘right’ to free speech should apply much more rigorously to someone who is about to be identified as the defendant in a criminal case. I mean, wasn’t the whole reason we wrote the Constitution because we were sick and tired of being in legal situations where we had no ‘rights’ against a Monarch who had all the ‘rights?’

You may think I’m just playing around with a bit of hyperbole because I’m trying to prove a point. But that’s not all I’m trying to do.