President Trump signs executive order on free speech at college campuses

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at ensuring colleges uphold free speech by threatening to withhold billions in research funding. It’s not entirely clear how the order will work.Trump issued the order in response to concerns from conservatives, including those in his voting base, that college campuses have become too liberal. Colleges and their faculty have been leery of conservative speakers and have unfairly labeled some of their ideas as bigoted, conservatives say. Protests surrounding conservative speakers on campus have sometimes turned violent. 

“My administration seeks to promote free and open debate on college and university campuses,” the executive order reads. “Free inquiry is an essential feature of our nation’s democracy.”

At the signing, Trump said the executive order was just the first in a “series of steps” the administration would take to defend the free speech of students. He didn’t say what those future steps would be.

He was joined on stage by college students, who he said “stood up to the forces of political indoctrination,” because they loved their country.