The Mahmoud Khalil Story Should Concern Everyone

Donald Trump is making it a point of his administration to challenge his definition of antisemitism — which is primarily just criticism of Israel. Of course, why the government is bothering cracking down on ideas — even ones as objectionable and abhorrent as antisemitic ones — is not a question anybody has really bothered to answer. Even if I personally agreed with Trump’s definition of antisemitism — and I don’t — I would still take issue with attempting to use government force in hopes of suppressing an idea, hateful rhetoric, as long as it does not call for immediate lawless action, is a First Amendment right, remember — see Snyder v. Phelps.

The deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a legal resident who had his Green Card suspended by the Trump Administration, is also a good reminder of what attempts to crack down on an idea look like in practice. Khalil had previously protested the policies of Israel’s government — a perfectly legal action under the First Amendment — back in 2024. Again, even assuming the administration is correct and what Khalil is doing counts as antisemitism, that still is not a punishable offense, people in the United States have the right to be antisemitic. That’s why Kevin MacDonald has never been arrested for his antisemitic Culture of Critique series, nobody in the Nation of Islam is in prison for taking part in The Secret Relationship…