Trump Offers Lifeline To UK ‘Thought Criminals’

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

The Trump White House is mulling political asylum for British free speech activists branded “thought criminals” under Keir Starmer’s regime, in one example offering refugee status to those prosecuted for silent protests outside abortion clinics as well as expressing online dissent.

The transatlantic intervention, said to be largely influenced by Elon Musk continually pointing to cases of the UK punishing people for “thought crimes,” signals America’s readiness to shield allies from creeping authoritarianism.

Administration insiders are intently exploring the option of offering visas and refugee status, focusing on figures like Livia Tossici-Bolt, prosecuted in March 2023 for holding a sign near a Bournemouth abortion clinic reading “Here to talk if you want,” and Adam Smith Connor, convicted for a vigil outside Poole Magistrates Court.

A source close to the process called the plan “serious,” noting officials are “beginning to consider” extending protections to gender critical activists, immigration critics, and even pro-abortion campaigners hit with “thought crimes.”

The White House is considering offering political asylum to British “thought criminals”, The Telegraph understands.

Read more here https://t.co/GF3IarnyIX pic.twitter.com/bvfc8UcDwv

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) November 16, 2025

This echoes Trump’s October pledge to offer asylum to Europeans opposing mass migration, prioritising those “targeted for peaceful expression of views online.”

A source with knowledge of the decision-making affirmed: “There are some people inside the administration that are actively scouting for cases.”

Trump set a precedent earlier in the year by granting refugee status to white South Africans claiming racial discrimination, despite halting most other admissions post-January inauguration.

At the UN, Trump recently warned European officials “You’re destroying your countries. They’re being destroyed. Europe is in serious trouble. They’ve been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody’s ever seen before. Illegal aliens are pouring into Europe.” He added that their countries were “going to hell” because of unchecked immigration.

In a GB News interview this past weekend, Trump once again directly tied the UK’s free speech crackdown to its immigration meltdown, declaring “If you don’t get [illegals] out, you’re not going to have a country left… You have areas in London where the police don’t even want to go anywhere near those areas. You have Sharia Law where they don’t even want to obey the laws of your country.”

The administration is also poised to revoke the visa of Imran Ahmed, boss of a Labour-linked NGO founded by Starmer’s chief of staff, after the group pushed online restrictions. Earlier, Starmer’s US trade deal bids nearly collapsed over Tossici-Bolt’s case, with a source insisting: “no free trade without free speech.”

This asylum initiative builds on Trump’s May 2025 dispatch of a U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour (DRL) team to London, led by senior adviser Samuel Samson, to meet arrested pro-life activists and affirm “the importance of freedom of expression in the UK and across Europe.”

The squad probed high-profile convictions like Lucy Connolly’s jailing for a social media post calling for asylum hotels to be set on fire after the Southport murders.

Trump’s moves expose the UK’s slide toward policing thoughts, from silent prayer bans to online censorship—offering a beacon for dissidents while pressuring allies to reclaim liberty before it’s lost to radical overreach.

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