‘No matter what, censorship is never the answer, especially in America.’

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, his actions and policies have been heavily debated across the country. While Joshua Brown, a sophomore engineering student at UW-Milwaukee, didn’t vote in the 2024 presidential election, he still has strong opinions on the government’s handling of national issues.

Deegan Norris: Are there any specific actions that you have any strong feelings towards?

Joshua Brown: Not crazy strong, but I guess the strongest would just be that his first kind of pressing matter seemed to be his deportation of Mexicans, South Americans, however you want to put it. I don’t agree with that. I understand that we should have these people in as legal citizens, but I also don’t think it’s the most important thing that the administration has to worry about right now.

Deegan Norris: Are there any specific reactions to how ICE has been acting or been handled?

Joshua Brown: I haven’t paid too close attention to exactly how they’re acting, but I guess, like I said, I just think that it’s not as pressing. We kind of fought that whole problem. As a person of color, we kind of fought that whole problem as brown people already, and now they have it recurring again with the immigrants and Mexicans and South Americans.

Deegan Norris: Along with how the ICE and National Guard have been getting a lot of flak from citizens, how do you feel with how free speech has been kind of impacted lately? Like how Jimmy Kimmel got taken off air or how certain people are being targeted for speaking out on Charlie Kirk?

Joshua Brown: I think no matter what, censorship is never the answer, especially in America. It’s our First Amendment right. We should 100 percent be able to speak freely and speak however we want. In terms of whatever else, if you wanted to get technical, if there was like a breach in CBS’s contract or something, sure. But if it was nothing like that, and that had full responsibility on the Trump administration or however that goes, that’s completely wrong. Even his quote-unquote partner or whatever you want to call it, Elon Musk, he bought Twitter on the whole premise of not censoring anybody. So that’s kind of hypocritical as a regime together.

Deegan Norris: Along with free speech issues, a lot of people have spoken out against the US’s support of Israel in the Israel and Palestine situation. What are your thoughts on how the US has been handling their intervention?

Joshua Brown: I mean, like always, we shouldn’t be funding that war. I think Israel’s kind of just using us for our money, and it’s really apparent at this point. We give them billions of dollars annually, and in return we don’t really get anything but an ally that’s kind of a loose cannon and doesn’t listen to anything we say in return for the billions of dollars that we give them. Yeah, honestly, it’s terrible. Honestly, it’s terrible. We shouldn’t be intervening. We definitely shouldn’t be funding that war, as well as funding Ukraine. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be funding Ukraine, but on top of that, funding two wars that we don’t actually have hands in. It can’t be good for our economy overall.

Deegan Norris: Are there any specific concerns for you in particular, like financially?

Joshua Brown: Well, I think that they need to figure out whatever they need to figure out to get the government back running. Because I know that there are plenty of single mothers and single fathers in America that are working full-time jobs and, have children that they have to feed. And, when those benefits don’t come next month, it’s going to get, you know, they’re going to start to struggle. I know firsthand, my girlfriend’s mom is a government employee. She’s forced to work without pay right now, and it’s not like she can skip work without getting fired. That’s not right. You have people like my great-grandma; she’s on Social Security right now. She’s about 75 or 80 years old. She obviously can’t work. If she doesn’t get her check next month, that’s not going to be good either. So yeah, I’m not exactly sure why the government shut down, but I know that it’s no time for that.