Ask A Genius 1350: Political Fear, Free Speech, and Satirical Resistance in the Trump Era
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/04/10
Rick Rosner: So, Carole doesn’t want me tweeting about Trump anymore. She doesn’t want me doing Lance versus Rick anymore either, because she saw a report today involving the U.S. Attorney General and the head of the FBI — Pam Bondi and Kash Patel — going after people.
Now, the deal with the Attorney General and the FBI is that they’re supposed to be independent organs of government — not personal lackeys of the president. But Trump intends to use them as if they are, and the people he’s appointed seem okay with that.
Carole saw a report saying that Trump wants a couple of people who were critical of him and of the 2020 election — since he still sometimes claims it was stolen — to be investigated and possibly prosecuted for treason. Just for holding a different opinion, or for doing investigative work that contradicted his narrative.
She’s afraid that if we leave the country and come back, customs might pull us aside — just because I’ve made pissy statements about Trump. So, I looked it up. U.S. citizens do have an absolute right to return to the United States, but they can be pulled aside by customs — not for “harassment,” of course; they call it “investigation” or “interrogation.” And yeah, they can hold you for a while.
But I’m not even in the top 20,000 Americans saying pissy stuff about Trump. I doubt they’ll be waiting for me. I doubt my passport would get flagged. I mean, what — 300,000 people across the country? Maybe more. Maybe a fucking million turned out to protest against Trump and the tariffs over the past few days. I don’t know. I just don’t think we’ve reached that point yet.
Not quite — at least not for citizens.
Jacobsen: On some topics, yes, but not across the board.
Rosner: Like, on Palestine. On Gaza. If you…
Jacobsen: Right — those are explicit deportation cases. Young people having it happen to them.
Rosner: But not citizens. Those are people here on student visas or green cards — which grant the right to work and live in the U.S. as immigrants, but not citizenship. If you speak out in favor of Gazans — if you attend a protest, or even, in at least one case, just walk by a protest — you can get picked up by ICE and deported. But again, those are not citizens. We’re not at the “fucking with citizens” point yet.
I have one more thing. I feel bad self-censoring — it feels like that poem: “First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Communist…” You go through all the groups Hitler took away, and by the end, no one’s left to speak for you.
I feel like self-censoring is a form of complicity. I understand — my wife is super nervous. But I don’t know… What do you think? Should I, just to reduce her anxiety, go back to fun tweets? Like, wrecking a movie title by changing one letter — like we used to do in the old, happy days of Twitter?
Jacobsen: That’s an individual decision.
Rosner: Like, okay — change one letter, two letters… Dong with the Wind.
Jacobsen: Or — Hong Kong edition — Kong with the Wind. I don’t know.
Rosner: I’m done. That’s all.
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