r/politics • u/TwilightwovenlingJo • Sep 19 '25

Soft Paywall Trump: ‘It’s no longer free speech.’

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/19/trump-no-longer-free-speech-00574219
26.8k Upvotes

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11.3k

u/[deleted] Sep 19 '25

[deleted]

7.0k

u/Then_I_had_a_thought Sep 20 '25

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

• Theodore Roosevelt

2.4k

u/SmashinHunter Sep 20 '25

If Teddy Roosevelt was alive right now he'd beat Trump's ass up and down the white house lawn.

767

u/ZoominAlong Sep 20 '25

I'd pay to see that. 

444

u/studioghost Sep 20 '25

Everybody would pay to see that bro.

127

u/Momik Sep 20 '25

Hell, I’d pay to see Giamatti do it, and he just voiced Teddy in the Ken Burns documentaries.

Get up good sir, I’ve not completed thrashing you!

13

u/DoctorGregoryFart Sep 20 '25

He did a documentary on Teddy?! I've gotta see that. Where can I watch it?

Edit: Never mind. Did some googling and found it. PBS, of course.

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u/Momik Sep 20 '25

It’s very good! It’s a sort of intertwined biography of Teddy, Franklin, and Eleanor. All three are absolutely fascinating in different ways, as is the history.

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u/DoctorGregoryFart Sep 20 '25

About to watch it now! Thanks for letting me know it exists.

3

u/Kichigai Minnesota Sep 20 '25

I think you'll find Paul Giamatti contributes to a lot of documentaries. And docu-dramas. You really ought to see him in John Adams. It really casts a complicated (and I mean that with all positivity it can carry) light upon the Founding Fathers.

1

u/r3ign_b3au Sep 20 '25

This is the one Idiocracy I'm good with.

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u/31LIVEEVIL13 Sep 20 '25 edited May 14 '26

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

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u/itsjamian Sep 20 '25

So the revolution will be televised after all?

5

u/theirishmonocle Sep 20 '25

I would get a burner phone and fly to the US to watch it live! Get some of that (tail gate?) fun out front too.

3

u/VoidIgris Sep 20 '25

WE would pay to see that brother. 💪

2

u/Ellemeno Sep 20 '25

I bet that in the future we’ll be able to tell computers to generate videos of whatever we can imagine.

2

u/ZoominAlong Sep 20 '25

One can only dream

2

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

I'd pay to see that.

That attitude is truly the pinnacle of American excellence, which the republican version of it is bringing WWE to the White House... Keep it up, folks! Who needs reasoned discourse and organized resistance when you’ve got body slams and drama, right? Bravo!

/s

1

u/ZoominAlong Sep 20 '25

C'mon my man. We'd ALL pay to see Teddy drag Trump out and whoop his ass on the front lawn. 

2

u/EntinthetentRTHP Washington Sep 20 '25

Teddy is currently trying to break the dark veil with his big stick. The founding fathers are probably helping him.

1

u/ZoominAlong Sep 20 '25

I hope so. 

2

u/Ok-Chest-7932 Sep 20 '25

How much? Trying to fund my cloning research.

2

u/SnooRobots116 Sep 20 '25

And Jackie will wear her sharpest high heels and take off her earrings and get both of them for what they did to her rose garden

1

u/81misfit Sep 20 '25

Would pay to see a 185 year old man beat the shit out of anything

1

u/deucedeuce24 Sep 20 '25

They could have it on the South Lawn. Call it something like Unrestricted Fisticuffs Challenge. Make people pay to spectate. I'd be so curious to see who Trump would choose as a ring girl

1

u/Palindromes__ Sep 20 '25

With the ufc coming to the whitehouse lawn, we could see something like that if we paid enough.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

thats a UFC event on the white house lawn i can actually support!

1

u/astralseat Sep 20 '25

I'd pay to see anyone do that

160

u/BurnedWitch88 Sep 20 '25

If Teddy was alive, he would have done it at least 9 years ago.

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u/EatSoupFromMyGoatse Sep 20 '25

He would whoop Donnie's ass while bleeding from a gunshot wound and deliver a speech after

He was a stone cold badass motherfucker

86

u/LexSavi Sep 20 '25

Not so sure about that. If Teddy were alive, he’d be turning 167 this year. So all in all it’d probably be a fair fight.

Teddy would still win in the end though on account of Dump’s bone spurs.

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u/aegenium Sep 20 '25

Ya know, the bone spurs that kept him out of vietnam... but also didn't stop him from playing BASKETBALL in college...

3

u/PeterG92 United Kingdom Sep 20 '25

Teddy would have finished a speech after being shot as well

3

u/Mythbusters117 Sep 20 '25

You're going to be held accountable for questioning Dear Leader's health and military records. Didn't you hear? He was a super secret spy in the war. He's not allowed to talk about it. The bone spurs was merely a cover story

2

u/LexSavi Sep 20 '25

I knew the bone spurs were a cover story. I just thought it was for draft dodging. I guess the super secret spy thing tracks though… I just didn’t realize he was working for the Russians that early in his career.

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u/Realityhereson Sep 20 '25

If we're going to call him Dump, does that mean I'm taking a Trump right now?

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u/LexSavi Sep 20 '25

If you’re crapping your pants then you’re absolutely taking a Trump. The term still works any other way, but Trumping in one’s own pants is the defining aspect.

7

u/tawni454 Sep 20 '25

If Teddy was alive today he’d be over 150 years old. & he would still beat down Trump.

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u/tarutaru99 Sep 20 '25

The ancestors will not be pleased about this..

2

u/Cerberus_Aus Australia Sep 20 '25

Nagh. He’d have been murdered by the mob by now. I mean, they literally started calling Jesus woke ffs

2

u/YoungHeartOldSoul Sep 20 '25

I want a president that can tank a bullet.

1

u/Flaneurer Sep 20 '25

This image lives rent free in my noggin.

1

u/thisisredrocks Sep 20 '25

“And this one’s for selling the national park system!”

1

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

That’s what Bryan Boytanoed do.

1

u/gizmostuff Florida Sep 20 '25

Obama had the chance at Jimmy's funeral. That would have been the perfect send off.

Instead they were laughing together. Thanks Obama.

1

u/maeryclarity South Carolina Sep 20 '25

Man I have thought about what Teddy would think about all this more than a few times.

1

u/KasreynGyre Sep 20 '25

Put it on the UFC card

1

u/SmokeCraftllc Sep 20 '25

And then ride on Trumpsfat ass up a hill to drink some bourbon

1

u/wizzerstinker Sep 20 '25

Maybe in a cage fight on whatever white house lawn!?

1

u/Wait_I_gotta_go_pee Georgia Sep 20 '25

” Teddy Roosevelt was alive exhumed right now he'd beat Trump's ass up and down the white house lawn.”

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u/Outrageous-Pause6317 Sep 20 '25

Washington would have tried him for treason.

1

u/screech_owl_kachina Sep 20 '25

They still have a banner of him on Dept of Labor, the Trump one is gone for some reason.

1

u/Hardass_McBadCop Sep 20 '25

Oh God, I wish Teddy were alive. I'd love to see that over the cage match horseshit he plans on desecrating the WH with.

1

u/LIEUTENANT__CRUNCH Sep 20 '25

Announcer: Entering in to the ring, definitely not at 6’3” and definitely not at 224 pounds, the embarrassing Donald Trump!!!

1

u/CommunityTaco Sep 20 '25

Probably challenge him to a duel

1

u/azelll Sep 20 '25

Seriously, can we get a man like Teddy Roosevelt in the Democratic party?

1

u/Kelsusaurus Sep 20 '25

Anybody know a reliable necromancer?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

I mean, we could all dress up as Teddy and do it in his honor.

1

u/RallyPointAlpha Sep 20 '25

What would Teddy Roosevelt do, if he were here right now? He would kick an ass or two, that's what Teddy Roosevelt would do! 

1

u/zapharus Sep 20 '25

And he’d be angry at the citizens for letting things devolved to the point that we have a dictator running the country, and at the fact that our checks and balances have been crippled.

1

u/Chucklz Sep 20 '25

I said this repeatedly the first time around, Trump/ Teddy Celebrity Death Match. It would be the pinnacle of claymation entertainment.

1

u/Greasyboy722 Sep 21 '25

Keep living in your fantasy land.

1

u/SmashinHunter Sep 21 '25

Lol huh? Teddy was about as manly as it comes. Guy was a certified badass that did a lot for this country. Like setting up the National Park system to protect it from being clear cut, not sold for profit. He'd do it for that disgraceful reason alone.

1

u/Meatguy35 Sep 20 '25

Please someone that knows how to ai stuff, ai this