U.S. President Trump attends the Ultimate Fighting

Civil Rights Lawyer Matthew Segal warned companies caving to President Donald Trump’s authoritarian pressure to fire political comedians and commenters are anticipating a less democratic America and are preparing their bottom line for a less free nation.

“[W]hen companies or institutions cave to Trump despite the law being on their side, they are not misunderstanding the law; they are making educated guesses that the U.S. is heading in a direction where, in practice, the law won't matter,” Segal posted on X.

Other social media observers chimed in, including author and King’s College Professor Sam Greene.

“I’d go one step further, as a scholar of authoritarianism: When companies or institutions cave despite the law being on their side, they are the ones who are making the law irrelevant,” Greene posted on X. “Law only works if you make it work. It has no agency of its own. We are all its agents.

Sirius XM’s “Lurie Daniel Favors Show” host Lurie Daniel Favors claimed the motivation of capitulating companies could be darker than Segal thinks. “Or … they are in alignment with him,” Favors wrote. “Y’all always miss the most obvious answers on these topics.”

Bellingcat researcher Jakub Janovsky responded, calling U.S. media companies: “a completely spineless collection of short-sighted fools,” adding that the U.S. public “couldn’t be bothered to organize serious protests if their lives literally depended on it.”

Meanwhile, Garry Kasparov, founder of the Renew Democracy Initiative, pointed out in his own X response that Trump is managing to cut the heads off freedom of speech from a place of weakness.

“Also notable is this is happening when Trump has record low approval numbers, but his targets don't feel they can depend on democracy-based resistance for the same reason Trump and his gang don't fear it,” Kasparov said. “Elections and the rule of law don't matter if you don't believe in them.