Public Diplomacy in the Trump Era: All Hate, All the Time

A new U.S. gov website promotes rhetoric by right-wing groups in an attempt to evade European rules against hate speech, pornography, and other illegal material.

Edwin Eisendrath is the former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Alderman who hosts It’s The Democracy Stupid on Lincoln Square and a weekly radio show on WCPT820AM/ Heartland Signal. Subscribe to his Substack.

The incessant tide of outrages from team Trump makes it easy to forget how damaging each has been. So, between now and the midterms, I’m going to revisit issues, trends and news events we need to remember.

Recently, I reread Trump v United States because, honestly, everyone should still be furious about it. It is a ruling that exempts the president from our laws. Chief Justice John Roberts mocked the dissenters, but their dire predictions have already come true. Here’s that piece in case you missed it.

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This week, I’m reminded that Donald Trump, his administration, and the party he controls are determined to replace the light of human freedom with some Trump-branded see-in-the-dark glasses.

Case in point: Freedom.gov

Nearly a century ago, Europe lost its freedom and plunged the world into war, in part because Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Francisco Franco knew how to weaponize hate using the new medium of radio. Those who survived the unspeakable horrors of World War II vowed never again to fall prey to organized hate. Today, across much of that continent, hate speech is largely banned from the political arena.

Ignoring the continent’s history, J.D. Vance castigated Europeans and vowed to force them to hear the currently illegal hate speech emanating from right-wing political parties across the continent.

To make that happen, the Trump administration announced in February that Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, would launch a new portal, Freedom.gov, at the Munich Security Conference.

For context, the United States once had a public diplomacy program that celebrated freedom and helped people living under severe oppression access the internet. Voice of America, Fulbright scholarships, and the Internet Freedom Program helped make us a beacon of hope to people everywhere.

The latter, the Internet Freedom Program, provided decentralized, privacy-preserving tools to activists and journalists in countries like Iran, Venezuela, and Myanmar, so they could access the internet without fear. The Trump administration killed that program. In its place, they developed a centralized system that routes users through its own system, one experts describe as “opaque.” That system is called Freedom.gov. It’s tag line reads: “Freedom is coming. Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.”

It has nothing to do with freedom. Its purpose is to evade European rules against hate speech, pornography, and other illegal material. It is part of an effort J.D. Vance championed to combat what he calls censorship by the politically correct. (The government stands by J.D. Vance’s comments but somehow denies that its portal is related.)

By now, everyone knows that Trump favors coercive speech rather than free speech. In the Oval Office, he calls reporters who ask questions “pigs”. His administration is in court defending the software companies that create nude images of little girls, insisting that protecting those girls somehow violates the companies’ speech rights. He is, of course, still illegally withholding (a form of censorship) the Epstein files. Meanwhile, across the country, his party is banning books from schools and public libraries.

In Trump’s hands, American public diplomacy has rapidly turned its back on freedom in favor of supporting autocratic political parties. Tools developed over time to win people around the world over to the ideals we cherish are now put to darker use. Voice of America and Fulbright scholarship are defunded. Taxpayer money instead built a portal so that neo-fascists in Europe can listen to would-be Hitlers in the AfD.

For the last year, these efforts have been led by Sarah Rogers, who is serves as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy. In her former life, she was a distinguished lawyer. Distinguished for her defense of Philip Morris, the NRA, and various actors claimed to have been “debanked.”

But there is reason for hope. Freedom.gov has yet to launch. I’d like to think the pushback from Europeans is responsible for the delay, but incompetence can never be ruled out.

As Americans rally for our own freedom during the upcoming midterm elections, it’s worth remembering that our efforts are part of a cause far greater than our own.