Former President Donald Trump promised Thursday that one of his first pieces of legislation if re-elected would be banning the federal government from censoring the “lawful speech of American citizens.”
“Within hours of my inauguration, I will sign an executive order banning any federal department or agency from colluding with any organization, business, or person, to censor, limit, categorize, or impede the lawful speech of American citizens,” Trump said in a video shared with the New York Post.
Trump made the remarks in a broader policy proposal on free speech, saying the “Twitter Files” revealed “that a sinister group of Deep State bureaucrats, Silicon Valley tyrants, left-wing activists, and depraved corporate news media have been conspiring to manipulate and silence the American People.”
It is the first policy pitch he has made since announcing his official presidential run exactly one month ago. (RELATED: Trump Announces Digital Trading Cards)
Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 15, 2022. – Donald Trump pulled the trigger on a third White House run on November 15, setting the stage for a bruising Republican nomination battle after a poor midterm election showing by his hand-picked candidates weakened his grip on the party. Trump filed his official candidacy papers with the US election authority moments before he was due to publicly announce his candidacy. (Photo by ALON SKUY / AFP) (Photo by ALON SKUY/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump also proposed a “seven-year cooling off period” for “any employee of the FBI, CIA, NSA, DNI, DHS, or DOD” before they take a job at a company handling “vast quantities of U.S. user data,” and urged House Republicans to send preservation letters to the Biden administration, the Biden campaign, and Big Tech companies to forbid destructing evidence of censorship.