VOA常速英语:特朗普被指保护言论自由 只为讨好保守派

After violent protests erupted at the University of California-Berkeley in late 2017, forcing the school to cancel a far-right figure speaking events, President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw federal funding. After a conservative activist was punched in the face while recruiting on the Berkeley campus, Trump embraced him at the Conservative Political Action Conference stage earlier this month. At that time, Trump promised an executive order requiring campuses to support free speech or face penalties. He signed the order to date. If a college or university doesn’t allow you to speak, we will not give them money. It’s very simple. The ordinary citizen, lots of Conservatives who say their voices are muted on liberal campuses with some schools blocking speakers because of student protests, many of them were invited to the signing, including a pro-life activist who says she was harassed by school officials.

I have seen lives saved through my students for life efforts on campus, but I never imagined the hostility I would face when trying to express my beliefs. The order is largely symbolic. Colleges already have to agree to protect free speech in order to get federal research funding. Civil liberty activists are concerned the move is a political effort to shore up support from the president’s conservative base. It’s also seem contradictory to Trump’s attacks on freedom of speech, including labeling unfavorable press coverage as fake news, and blasting football players who kneel during the national anthem to protest racial inequality. There’s a hypocrisy there, and again I don’t think it’s necessarily unique to the president, but I do think that actually coming out in favor of of this executive order because of his belief in free speech seems a little disingenuous given all the statements that he’s made in the past. The order does not specify how or by what standard federal agencies will ensure compliance. There is a danger that when it’s implemented, it made the political, the political aspect of it. Maybe the president there with the kinds of cases that are actually brought in front of whatever committee has put together to enforce this. But it sends a clear message that Trump is eager to embrace the priorities of Conservatives who say their freedom of speech is under attack.
Patsey Gusowada VOA News at the White House.