By Simon Walters

Copyright independent

Nothing reveals Donald Trump’s double standards on free speech more emphatically than the way the Jimmy Kimmel TV show in America has been taken off air.

Talk show host Kimmel was dropped after accusing the “MAGA gang of trying to score political points” off the murder of Charlie Kirk and mocking Trump’s reaction to it as “how a four-year-old mourns the death of a goldfish”. You can question Kimmel’s sense of taste, but you would expect a champion of free speech to leap to his defence.

Trump has done the opposite and even took time out during his state visit to Britain to post his approval of Kimmel’s silencing on his Truth Social social media outlet.

No one has ever accused Trump of having a sense of irony. But you would like to think that he paused for just a moment to consider the inconsistency of praising the virtues of free speech in his Windsor Castle banquet speech, and shortly afterwards celebrating the demise of someone for exercising that supposed cherished freedom.

It reveals the crude truth about Trump’s definition of free speech: you can say anything you like as long as you don’t criticise him. Nor was he merely commenting on the censorship of Kimmel from the sidelines: his departure seems to have been the direct result of action by Trump’s allies in the US.

His show was cancelled by the ABC network after pressure on its owners, Disney, from Brendan Carr, the head of America’s media regulator, the Federal Communications Commission. Carr called Kimmel “truly sick” and accused him of “lying to the American people”. Carr just happens to have been appointed to his role by, yes, you guesssed it, Donald Trump.

Respected US media commentator Stephen Battaglio of the Los Angeles Times said of Carr on the Today programme: “He is an agent of Donald Trump. He wakes up in the morning and the first thing he asks himself is ‘how can I please the President?’” As Mr Battaglio pointed out, Charlie Kirk, the outspoken pro Trump advocate assassinated at a Utah Valley University event last Wednesday, was himself a passionate advocate of free speech. “He said a lot of things that were loathsome to many people. However, he was willing to go into the arena and debate and challenge people who didn’t agree with him. I cannot imagine he would have approved of something like this in his memory.”

Mr Battaglio said Disney TV chiefs who had buckled to pressure could rue the day they dumped Kimmel at Trump’s behest. It could lead to other celebrities and broadcasters horrified at the way someone could be “shutdown for something they said in a moment of creative expression” refusing to go on ABC shows in a show of support for Kimmel. Mr Battaglio said: “There could be a wider reaction to this that Disney may come to regret.” It is too soon to tell whether that will happen, although US show business figures including actors Ben Stiller, Wanda Sykes and Jean Smart have already criticised the firing of Kimmel. Compare and contrast Kimmel’s fate with that of Brian Kilmeade, a presenter on Trump’s beloved Right wing Fox TV. Kilmeade recently called for mentally ill and homeless people to be killed. As US comedian Paul Scheer observed: “So let me get this straight. Kimmel is off the air for his comments about the politicisation of an assassination but this is totally fine.” Kilmead later apologised for his remarks.

It is hard to grasp the breathtaking degree of Trump’s hypocrisy in the Kimmel affair. Judging from his outrage, one imagines he would be even more angry if Kimmel accused him of having a “low IQ” and falsely claimed he had lied about being born in America. Except Kimmel did not say those things. Both were insults hurled by another former TV show host, Trump himself – about Democrat opponents Kamala Harris and Barack Obama. Before narcissist Trump and vice president JD Vance next lecture Britain on the free speech, they should look in the mirror first.