Trump administration officials on Tuesday announced measures to crack down on campus protests critical of Israel, moves that have chilling implications for First Amendment rights.

President Trump wrote on his Truth Social website that he would cut off federal funding to colleges that allow illegal protests, referring to student-led pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have spread across the country in response to Israel’s bombing campaign and blockade of Gaza. The president also threatened to jail or deport “agitators” if they are foreign students, just hours before he delivered a speech to Congress in which he claimed to have restored the sanctity and place of free speech in American society.

“All federal funding will be stopped for any college, school, or university that permits unlawful protests,” the president said. “Inciters will be imprisoned and/or permanently returned to the country from which they came… American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.”

Elise Stefanik, Trump's nominee for UN ambassador, celebrated Trump's announcement and acknowledged that the order was intended to target protests against Israel.

“Under President [Trump], colleges and universities will be held accountable,” Stefanik said. “Anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hatred will not be tolerated on American campuses. Promises made, promises kept.”

Journalist Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional lawyer, explained in a video posted on X why cutting federal funding due to political speech and protests is a violation of the First Amendment.

“You can take the position that there shouldn’t be federal funding for universities or there should be, and that’s independent of the point of free speech,” Greenwald said. “Once the federal government or any government decides to provide an optional benefit … they can’t then make receiving that benefit conditional on your expressing a particular viewpoint, your affirming a particular viewpoint, or your refraining from expressing a political viewpoint. That’s a fundamental First Amendment doctrine.”

Trump’s announcement came a day after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, said the Department of Health and Human Services would take steps to combat “anti-Semitism” on college campuses in another directive targeting pro-Palestinian protests. While both President Trump and his predecessor have called the protests “anti-Semitic,” many Jewish students and organizations have participated in the demonstrations.

The Department of Health and Human Services said in a press release that it, along with the Department of Education and the U.S. General Services Administration, will launch “a comprehensive review of federal contracts and grants to Columbia University in light of ongoing investigations into potential violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act” regarding allegations of anti-Semitism related to pro-Palestine protests.

“Anti-Semitism—like racism—is a spiritual and moral disease that sickens communities and kills people with a lethality comparable to the deadliest pandemics in history,” Kennedy said in a statement. “In recent years, censorship and the false narratives of a woke cancel culture have turned our great universities into hotbeds for this deadly and insidious disease. Making America healthy means building communities of trust and mutual respect, grounded in free speech and open debate.” Last week, Leo Terrill, the attorney who leads the Justice Department’s Anti-Semitism Task Force, vowed to put “Hamas supporters” in jail. “You see all these chaotic demonstrations supporting Hamas and trying to terrorize Jews? We’re going to put these people in jail—not for 24 hours, but for years,” Terrill said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12.

Terrell, whose task force was created under an executive order signed by President Trump in January, said charges and other “aggressive” moves would begin soon. The Justice Department said the task force would visit 10 college campuses to investigate alleged anti-Semitic incidents.

“When you see universities start losing millions of dollars in federal funding, you’re going to see a change in their behavior,” Terrell told Channel 12. “When you see court orders to protect Jewish students, to revoke visas for anti-Semitic students — you’re going to see a big change.”

In 2019, President Trump signed an executive order directing all executive departments to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism and the organization’s list of examples of “contemporary anti-Semitism” when enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, making criticism of Israel anti-Semitism.