Trump allies want a ‘Charlie Kirk Act,’ but the law they cite never held media ‘accountable for lying’
Three days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, President Donald Trump shared a supporter’s video pleading with him to reinstate a Cold War-era law she said punished media organizations for spreading falsehoods.
“I am hoping and praying that you will revisit what Barack Obama and Joe Biden got rid of back in 2013, which is the Smith-Mundt Act,” the narrator said in a TikTok video that Trump reposted Sept. 13 on Truth Social. The supporter described the law as one that “held news corporations accountable for lying to the American people and spreading propaganda instead of truth.”
The narrator urged Trump to reinstate the law and rename it the “Charlie Kirk Act.” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, seemed up to the task; on X, he posted, “In the coming days, I’ll be filing my previously drafted legislation to restore Smith-Mundt, and renaming it the Charlie Kirk Act. Domestic, political, government-funded propaganda must end now.”
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