In a momentous 1941 speech, the United States president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, outlined the “Four Freedoms” that he believed everyone should enjoy. These were freedom of speech and expression; freedom of worship; freedom from want; and freedom from fear.

Freedom from want is not guaranteed in the US; individuals and families are expected to provide for themselves. However, US government programs established under Roosevelt, and since then, supplied a minimum safety net in extenuating circumstances. However, these safety net programs are less generous than those in most wealthy countries. And, of course, freedom from fear is not guaranteed; it has been deficient lately because of the abundance of firearms in the US.

But freedom of worship and freedom of speech are sacrosanct. They are guaranteed by the US Constitution, its revered founding document. Above all, freedom of speech marks the US, in its estimation, as the beacon of freedom for the free world.

However, freedom is eroding fast under President Donald Trump’s new administration. This is made clear in appalling detail in a recent column by former Republican David French. French was previously president of the advocacy organization FIRE — the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — and is now a journalist for The New York Times. During French’s tenure, and continuing under new leadership, FIRE brought numerous cases to court and defended them to protect the freedom of expression and worship.

But now, in his Times column, French is showing how vigorously the new Trump administration is attacking and eviscerating those freedoms. The attacks are on speech, teaching, and other forms of expression, such as theater productions. These attacks resemble the proscriptions and dictates during the Soviet era in the USSR, which arose from a desire to make forms of expression align with the prescribed ideology.

In this case, the purpose is to eliminate so-called “woke” forms of speech and expression. The term “woke” signifies speech, teaching, and expression designed to ameliorate the continuing disadvantages believed to be experienced by formerly suppressed minorities in the US; specifically, Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and people of unconventional gender and sexual orientation. “Woke” efforts also fall under the label DEI, which stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

These efforts may have gone overboard. And yet, evidence shows that Blacks and Native Americans still, on average, tend to experience greater difficulties than white people in the US.

But in the eyes of the anti-woke, a description that fits the new administration exactly, these efforts have become pure evil. Hence its latest, clearly unconstitutional drive to eliminate them.

French begins with an account of how the US attorney for the District of Columbia, a presidential appointee, sent a letter to the dean of the Georgetown University Law Center, a private Catholic law school, saying, “It has come to my attention reliably that Georgetown University Law School continues to teach and promote DEI. This is unacceptable.”

First, it is not the business of a US attorney to decide what is and is not acceptable to teach in a private law school. Second, it is not at all clear what exactly is considered DEI. Is it unacceptable to teach the history of Black people in America? Or of Native Americans, who historically suffered from attacks that bordered on, or were, genocide? If that is what the US attorney considers teaching DEI — and it may well be — it is unconstitutional interference with freedom of speech.

But French goes on to describe even worse infractions. Trump imposed federal sanctions on law firms that represented clients he did not like. Some of these firms participated in the prosecution of Trump for his alleged role in an attempt to change the result of the 2020 US presidential election. 

French also describes how Trump administration officials reserve the right to raid a church during religious services on the mere suspicion that an illegal immigrant may be in attendance. Now, a Palestinian Columbia University student has been arrested for exercising his free speech to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Courts in the United States are likely to rule against Trump in lawsuits opposing his administration’s rulings. But the wheels of justice grind slowly. French says, “The attacks on free speech and the First Amendment (which guarantees freedom of speech and religion) are so numerous that it’s difficult to keep up”. Trump and his appointees and acolytes are applying this tactic: to flood the scene and the courts with a rapid-fire sequence of actions that will take so long to counteract that they will be overwhelming. The protection of the US’ vaunted freedoms may be enduringly compromised. Soon, it will no longer have a legitimate claim to lead the free world.

The author is a mathematician and economist with expertise in finance, energy, and sustainable development. He is an adjunct professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.