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US president Donald Trump made a bizarre claim about free speech and the amount of negative press about him – and it backfired almost instantly.
Trump is no stranger to controversy, often making headlines for attacking people he dislikes, or even throwing insults at those who ask the tough questions he doesn’t want to answer.
Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump took questions from the press. In one of his answers, he appeared to claim that, if most of the news stories about a person are bad, it’s “no longer free speech”.
“I think that reporting has to be at least accurate. At least accurate to an extent,” Trump began.
He continued: “Again, when somebody is given… 97 per cent of the stories are bad about a person, that’s no longer free speech, it’s no longer… that’s just cheating. And they cheat.”
It didn’t take long for people (and an X/Twitter community note) to point out that the second part of his statement is completely incorrect, as rights to free speech do not determine a limit on how much of it can be negative.
“Or maybe that person is just 97% bad,” someone posed in response.
Another argued: “Actually, when only 97% of the stories about a person who is 100% bad are bad, it means someone in the media isn’t doing their job.”
Someone else mocked: “Free speech is when I can silence the 97% talking bad about me.”
“Actually, it is free speech. In certain cases it’s truthful speech,” argued another.
One person suggested: “If someone is a bad person, we should be allowed to say it without consequences. That is free speech after all…”
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