Donald Trump has had plenty of bad things to say about protesters over the past couple of years. Tuesday, in response to protests at Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, he took the next step and said out loud—to the Daily Caller—that protest should be banned:
“I don’t know why they don’t take care of a situation like that,” Trump said. “I think it’s embarrassing for the country to allow protesters. You don’t even know what side the protesters are on.”
He added: “In the old days, we used to throw them out. Today, I guess they just keep screaming.”
It’s embarrassing for the country to allow protesters, a right guaranteed by the First Amendment. Nothing authoritarian about that!
In fact, dozens of protesters were arrested at the Kavanaugh hearing, because there are limits on where and when and how we can protest. But apparently Trump thinks more extreme action should have been taken there and that protest as a general rule shouldn’t be “allowed” because it’s sooooo “embarrassing.” Why, when he gets together with Vladimir Putin or Rodrigo Duterte or Kim Jong Un, they just laugh and laugh at him.
Here’s the question, though: If protest is banned, what happens to the “very fine people” at Nazi demonstrations? Or … does Trump consider that a show of loyalty rather than a protest?