Kristallnacht ... 2025

A vigil held in Kentucky on Wednesday for the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed while speaking to students in Utah last week © Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Kristallnacht

On the night of November 9–10, 1938, Nazi German leaders unleashed a nationwide anti-Jewish riot. The violence was supposed to look like an unplanned outburst of popular anger against Jews. In reality, this was state-sponsored vandalism, arson, and terror. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). It is also referred to as the November Pogrom.

This time, in 2025, it's not about Jews, it's about the fate of America
and the elimination of civil rights for all of us.

Among President Donald Trump’s first executive orders of his second term was one headlined “Restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship”.

The order said Joe Biden’s administration had “trampled” on Americans’ rights to say, or refuse to say, what they wanted. Vice-president JD Vance and supporters such as Elon Musk hailed Trump’s return to the White House as a moment of freedom.

But after the killing of Charlie Kirk, some people — on both sides of the political divide — fear an assault on free speech may be under way.

“Businesses cannot discriminate,” attorney-general Pam Bondi said this week after an Office Depot employee reportedly refused to print flyers for a vigil for Kirk. “You have to let [the customer] do that,” adding “we can prosecute you” for refusing to do so.

Other top officials have made clear that, after last week’s shooting of Kirk, 31, they believe there are limits to free speech.

The president set the tone, vowing in a speech just hours after Kirk’s death to pursue the “radical left” people he said were responsible for the attack. Utah authorities charged Tyler Robinson with aggravated murder on Tuesday.

Pam Bondi (centre), US attorney-general, with President Donald Trump on Monday. Bondi has said the federal government would investigate some speech in the wake of Kirk’s killing
© Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg

Secretary of state Marco Rubio said the US could revoke the visas of foreigners seen to be supporting Kirk’s killing. Vance urged people to report on those cheering the murder.

“Call them out, and hell, call their employer,” the vice-president said as he hosted The Charlie Kirk Show podcast, a few days after its host’s death.

Disney’s ABC network on Wednesday evening pulled late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel’s show, days after he was roundly criticised by Kirk’s supporters for suggesting the killer was a Maga supporter.

The White House on X said the network was “doing their viewers a favour”, calling Kimmel “a sick freak”. Trump late on Wednesday posted on Truth Social: “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED.”

Bondi has also said the federal government would investigate some speech. “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech,” Bondi said. There was “no place, especially now” for the latter, she added, and the government would “go after” people for it.

Kristallnacht ... 2025 applies.