Trump Says the Campus Free-Speech Crisis Is ‘Overblown’

Is free speech in a state of crisis on college campuses? Those with a strong opinion say it’s either a dire concern, citing disrupted speeches, or blown way out of proportion in response to cherry-picked incidents. Many conservatives will argue the former, but you can apparently count President Trump as one of the skeptics.

Charlie Kirk, executive director of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, spoke with Trump at a panel discussion on Thursday.

Their conversation covered the recent changes to the tax code, vocational schools, and political correctness. Kirk also requested advice from the president for the “young patriots and conservatives on campus that support your agenda that are being ridiculed and silenced because administrators are clamping down on free speech.”

The president responded that one or two campuses get all the publicity. (Trump last year raised the idea of revoking federal funds from the University of California at Berkeley following the violent protests against a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos.)

But he appeared to ultimately brush aside Kirk’s premise. He said the “vast majority” of people on campuses “want free speech.”

“If you look at what’s going on with free speech with the super left, with antifa, with all of these characters,” Trump said, “I’ll tell you what, they get a lot of publicity, but you go to the real campuses, and you go all over the country, you go out to the Middle West, you go out even to the coast in many cases, we have a tremendous support. I would say we have majority support. I think it’s highly overblown. Highly overblown.”

Kirk responded that he “totally agreed” before adding that he hears from people who are Trump supporters who feel they aren’t allowed to say as much because of administrators and professors.

Research largely backs up the idea that a majority of college students support free speech. A recent Gallup poll found that 56 percent of college students say protecting free expression is extremely important to society — though there were caveats. In the same poll, 73 percent said they supported campus policies that restrict hate speech.

Trump’s statement also goes against comments made by Justice Department officials. In January a top department official said colleges ought to do more to deal with those who heckle speakers or shut down campus events. The department has also filed at least three statements of interest in cases involving free-speech lawsuits and colleges, following a speech by the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who assailed colleges that attempt to curb free speech through restrictive rules.

Chris Quintana is a breaking-news reporter. Follow him on Twitter @cquintanadc or email him at chris.quintana@chronicle.com.