Former Bush aide: 'Suppression of Democratic Party speech is coming'

David Frum, a speechwriter during former President George W. Bush's administration, warned Wednesday night that the Democratic Party will face suppression.

“We don’t have to speculate about what comes next, because President Trump — in his televised speech after the assassination of Charlie Kirk — and his aide Stephen Miller have already told us what is coming next,,” Frum said during an appearance on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

“The attack on Democratic Party fundraising is coming next,” he added. "The suppression of Democratic Party speech is coming next."

Frum pointed to the Justice Department’s April investigation of ActBlue as proof that a crackdown on GOP opposition would soon commence. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi has pledged to target people found to be promoting hate speech in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death. However, political pundits and legal advocates from both parties said such plans violate First Amendment rights. 

Still, Frum speculated that President Trump would violate constitutional norms to preserve power. 

“Donald Trump has maliciously attacked the standards of living of ordinary Americans with his tariffs,” Frum, a frequent Trump critic, told Burnett, mentioning the president's business endeavors. "He’s enormously corrupt. He’s taking billions of dollars in meme coins and other kinds of crypto coins."

“He cannot afford a free and fair election in 2026, and what he thinks about every moment of the day is, ‘How do I head off a free and fair election in 2026?’” Frum concluded. 

The former presidential speechwriter said a “hastily developed strategy” created after Kirk’s death will make political competition in the U.S. “unfree and unfair.”

Democrats frequently painted a second Trump administration as a danger to democracy ahead of the 2024 election, and some leaders are suggesting such a threat is materializing after the Turning Point USA co-founder's fatal shooting.

“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” former President Obama wrote in a statement on the social platform X.

Earlier this year, Obama said the country was moving "dangerously close" to an autocracy.