Vowing to withhold billions of Federal dollars if they don't comply:

President Trump vowed Saturday to "soon" issue an executive order that would deny federal research funds to colleges and universities that do not support free speech. "If they want our dollars and we give them by the billions, they’ve got to allow people to speak," said Trump in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

During his speech, President Trump brought on stage and praised Hayden Williams, who was punched last week when he was at the University of California, Berkeley, seeking support for the president and conservative causes and criticizing Jussie Smollett, the actor who is facing charges of false reporting to the police in a hate crime he claimed to have experienced.

First of all, I don't condone physically assaulting somebody because of what they say, for several reasons. And one of those reasons is because (often) that is exactly what the speaker wants, just like this Berkeley dude. He's a field organizer for the Leadership Institute, the same incubator that produced the white supremacist group Youth for Western Civilization that plagued the UNC campus ten years ago:

But their symbolism betrays the true nature of the movement: to use fear, pride and implied violence to drive a wedge between the races, in an effort to preserve the status of the White race as the ruler of all others.

As bent and misguided as their ideology seems, the overreaction by counter-demonstrators at UNC is merely grist for the mill, fuel for the fire. It represents, to them and others who might find some truths in their message, that they really are "at war" with a tangible enemy. You can't fight hate with anger, folks. You have to expose the underlying weaknesses that breed the hate, because those weaknesses cannot bear the scrutiny.

My views have not changed much since I wrote that. We still need to guard against becoming exactly what they want us to be. Sun Tzu had a lot to say along these lines, but this, "Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory," is perhaps the most apt. Don't give them what they want, the aura of a legitimate threat.

Back to the Orange Satan:

Of Williams, President Trump said that he should sue Berkeley "and maybe sue the state." To loud applause, Trump said, "He took a hard punch in the face for all of us. We can never allow that to happen." And he added that after Williams sues Berkeley, "he's going to be a very wealthy man." The crowd at the meeting chanted "USA" as Trump made these statements.

Yeah, this is the same jackass that said, "I'd like to punch him in the face," of course referring to a reporter at one of his rallies, and then later promising to pay the legal bills of anybody who punched a reporter. But again, we can't let the Trumps of the world dictate our behavior.