Former President Donald Trump issued a dire warning about free speech in America during a rare glimpse of Trump’s inner circle caught on camera.
“My Dinner with Trump,” a new Daily Wire+ documentary featuring footage shot at Trump’s Bedminster, N.J., golf club, captures the former president talking with key advisers at a crucial time in his post-presidency. During one part of the exclusive dinner, Trump derides the legacy media, blaming them for the erosion of free speech.
“Ben, there’s never been a period of time like this. The country is going bad,” the former president said to his Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson. “You have the media is shut, closed, not free, corrupt as can be, and probably scared. You cannot get the word out unless you’re really good, and we’re pretty good, and we’re getting the word out.”
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Trump added that in all of American history, the media has never been so corrupt, and it’s evidence of something far more dangerous. Carson jumped in, arguing that many Americans don’t realize how free speech can be taken away even without government intrusion. Carson’s warning seems prescient given fresh reports on how the FBI and other federal agencies worked hand-in-glove with Facebook and Twitter to censor conservatives under the guise of fighting “disinformation.”
“I don’t think people actually recognize what’s happening because we talk about liberties and freedom of speech. They think that that can only be taken away by the federal government,” Carson responded. “But the fact of the matter is Big Tech and the media take it away with a complicit government is exactly the same effect. And that’s what we have to make sure people understand.”
The extraordinary gathering took place in mid-2021, after Trump had been deplatformed by social media giants, continued to face unrelenting scorn from the legacy media, and battled accusations from top Democrats that he sparked the January 6 Capitol riot. The massive effort to silence and marginalize the 45th president makes the film’s insight into his mindset all the more compelling.
“If you do something spectacular, they don’t talk about it. If you do something not so good, they’ll make it into a travesty. If the other side does something bad, really bad, you will never see it,” Trump added. “You will never find it … they erase it, they cancel it. And there’s never been a period of time like that in our country’s history. There’s never been. And that’s the way communism starts. And that’s where communism goes. And we can’t let it happen. We’re not going to let it happen.”
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Greg Wilson contributed to this report.