Donald Trump Praises George Orwell Amid Free Speech Crackdown Concerns

President Donald Trump praised the British novelist George Orwell at the state banquet at Windsor Castle on Wednesday evening, amid growing concerns over a crackdown on free speech.

“A fifth of all of humanity speaks, writes, thinks and prays in the language born on these isles and perfected in the pages of Shakespeare and Dickens, Tolkien and Lewis, Orwell and Kipling – incredible people, unbelievable people like we have rarely seen before and probably won’t see again,” Trump said.

Orwell’s most famous work, 1984, provides a warning about the suppression of freedom of thought and expression, and the consequences of totalitarianism.

It comes at a time when there are growing concerns about freedom of speech in the U.S. in the wake of the killing of the conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.

This is a developing story. More to follow.