The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s hate for opponents: practising politics the wrong way | Editorial

The president's admission is more than bravado. By blurring truth and criminalising dissent, he is dismantling the US's free-speech order from within

At Sunday's memorial for the rightwing activist CharlieKirk, Donald Trump paid a peculiar tribute. Having quoted Mr Kirk's words of forgiveness, he put aside the script. That's where I disagreed with Charlie," he said. I hate my opponents, and I don't want the best for them." It was a stark and clarifying admission. Mr Trump does not seek to criminalise hate speech so much as to criminalise speech he hates.

The US is being dragged into a state of emergency. Speech is framed as terrorism. Satire is rebranded as enemy propaganda. Employers punish workers for personal posts. The predictable result is a chilling climate of surveillance and reprisal, in which citizens learn to keep quiet. The assassination is not just being used to police manners; it is being used to reconstruct the public square so that dissent equals disloyalty, and disloyalty is treated as a security threat.