US free-speech rights shredded despite Trump vow to be first-amendment champion

Experts say free speech under attack in ways not seen since Nixon - and critics of president's agenda are being targeted

A cornerstone of the Maga movement during the Biden administration was to accuse a mixture of the so-called woke left" and the justice department of forcing America into the grips of a free speech crisis.

Common complaints were that nobody can say anything any more" without being canceled or arrested for extremism. In the same breath, Maga broadly described the January 6 insurrection, which killed a police officer, as peaceful, accusing the Democrats of a communist conspiracy.