By GB News (World News) | Created at 2024-11-20 22:06:47 | Updated at 2024-11-24 09:16:11
3 days ago
Eric Trump has warned of the UK of a "horrible slippery slope" with policing social media posts, declaring that there is "nothing more important to Americans than free speech".
In an exclusive interview with GB News presenter Ben Leo, the 40-year-old son of President-elect Donald Trump discussed the UK's crackdown on Britons posting their views online, and hoped that society can "categorically reject it".
Echoing the thoughts of tech mogul Elon Musk, who was recently appointed as the chief of the Republican's Department of Government Efficiency, Trump claimed: "Elon was right - people send out a tweet expressing frustration, and all of a sudden they come and they get arrested. That's a very, very dangerous precedent to set.
"And I hope society rejects it, categorically so."
Eric Trump hit out at the UK's 'dangerous' policing of social media posts
GB News
When asked if he agrees with Musk that the move echoes a "Stalinist state", Trump stated that he was "not gonna go down that road" because it would "create a clickbait".
However, he did tell GB News: "I think it is very unhealthy when somebody posts something on Twitter and they get arrested three months later.
"I come from a country where we have a First Amendment right, and the First Amendment is freedom of speech. It's followed by the Second Amendment, and the Second Amendment ensures that you always have freedom of speech.
"There's nothing more important to Americans than than their First Amendment right, to be able to say whatever they want."
Trump explained: "There can be consequences for saying what you want - you could lose your job, you could do something.
"But it doesn't mean that the government can come knock on your door and send you to jail because you oppose some liberal view."
He added: "I think it's a very dangerous precedent what's getting set, if people are getting arrested. You see the same thing in China right now - people were already going to jail for voicing frustration against the government.
"It's a horribly dangerous, slippery slope, and I hope it gets rejected as quickly over here as it was rejected in the United States."
Ben Leo sat down with Eric Trump for an exclusive interview with GB News
GB News
When asked by Ben if he believes his father could be an "influence" on the UK for free speech now that he is President, Trump suggested that his plan is to "take care of America", but could "lead by example" to Keir Starmer and the Labour Government.
Trump concluded: "I think my father's going to take care of the United States of America, and I think you're gonna have a lot of eyes following the United States.
"He'll lead by example. I can tell you he's 100 per cent committed to free speech because there's no one that's been censored more than him. This is a man that was kicked off of Twitter, kicked off Facebook, kicked off of Instagram. We created Truth Social as a way for him to communicate to the masses based on the fact that he was censored by everybody else.
"Now the pendulum has shifted, and the pendulum has shifted in a major way, because people spoke out, but also because you had great people like Elon Musk who put an end to that nonsense."
