August 22, 2026 — Quashing, Crushing Free Speech
Check out this week’s blog post by IP attorney, author Timothy Trainer, host of the podcast and video show Tim’s Travails • Follow Tim on Substack
Image: marshallfoundation.org
The headlines focus on what has been going on recently at Stars & Stripes. The reality is that Trump and his minions have engaged in an all-out attempt to quash and silence those whose words and opinions they don’t like.
Reuters reported earlier this month that “75 federal-judge rulings finding Trump’s government infringed on First Amendment rights, including freedoms of speech, religion, and the press.” Trump vowed to ‘bring free speech back.’ Judges in 75 cases ruled that he has stifled it | Reuters. This is not simply an attempt to intimidate and silence those who oppose what this administration is doing. This is an outright attack on the very Constitution and the rights of citizens that Trump and many others took an oath to protect and defend. This is clear evidence that he is an enemy of the Constitution and the laws that he took an oath to uphold.
When it comes to Stars & Stripes, the publication has a long history that dates to its origins in 1861 when a few Union soldiers “captured a newspaper plant in Missouri.” Marshall and the Stars and Stripes – The George C. Marshall Foundation. It produced only a few copies. It has been revived more than once but became a permanent publication during World War II.
In order to make clear that Stars & Stripes is to be treated as a source of news independent of government and military influence, one of the relevant provisions in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations states that “Editorial policies and practices of the Stars and Stripes shall be in accordance with journalistic standards governing U.S. daily commercial newspapers of the highest quality, with emphasis on matters of interest to the Stars and Stripes readership. Except as provided in paragraph (e) of this section, the DoD policy for the Stars and Stripes is that there shall be a free flow of news and information to its readership without news management or censorship. The calculated withholding of unfavorable news is prohibited.” 32 CFR § 246.4 – Policy. | Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute.
Given the language of the section above, there is little to no doubt that the efforts of Hegseth and others are to silence Stars & Stripes or to ensure that it is not published without undue influence. The notion of free flow of information is now subject to the kinds of filtering the regulation prohibits. While the regulation instructs that news that may be unfavorable shall be published, Trump and Hegseth act to violate the very foundation of the publication.
For those who continue to believe that there is any attempt by this administration to uphold the Constitution and the laws of these United States, this is another clear example that Trump, Hegseth, and others are dismantling, violating, and undermining the fundamental rights granted to the people of the country they took an oath to defend and protect.
Timothy Trainer • Photo by AnnaGibbs.com
About Timothy Trainer: Writing books is a passion for attorney Timothy Trainer, who for more than three decades focused on intellectual property issues in his day job. He has worked in government agencies and in the private sector, and his assignments have taken him to 60 countries around the world.
Tim found time to pen a few non-fiction tomes, including his first book, Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights;the 15th edition was published in 2022. Thomson Reuters’ Aspatore Books published Tim’s next title in 2015, Potato Chips to Computer Chips: The War on Fake Stuff.
Fiction was a genre he always wanted to try. In 2019, Pendulum Over the Pacific, was released by Joshua Tree Publishing. “This political intrigue story is set in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., and centers on trade tensions between the U.S. and Japan in the late 1980s,” Tim explains.
In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.
In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.
Click here to learn about all of Tim’s books.
