Indiana Lieutenant Governor-elect Micah Beckwith threatened the Indiana Daily Student and IU in an X post Tuesday over the IDS’ Nov. 7 front cover, which featured a photo illustration of President-elect Donald Trump accompanied by quotes from his former political allies. In the post, Beckwith labeled the page “elitist leftist propaganda” and said it “needs to stop or we will be happy to stop it for them.”
This is from the Indiana Daily Student, the student newspaper at Indiana University after Trump won. Your tax dollars at work. They called him a “moron,” a “fascist,” and a “threat to democracy” (even though we aren’t a democracy, but I don’t expect students at IU to know that.)… pic.twitter.com/4Ot8ZKVx5G
Indiana voters elected Mike Braun, a U.S. Senator, and Beckwith as the next governor and lieutenant governor Nov. 5.
Beckwith is a Noblesville pastor and describes himself as a “Christian nationalist.” The state GOP selected Beckwith as its nominee for lieutenant governor over Julie McGuire, a State House representative who Braun endorsed for the role.
A representative for Braun acknowledged an IDS’ request for a statement and said he will reach back out if he has any additional comment. A representative for Beckwith’s transition team did not respond to request for comment by time of publication.
In an October interview with Indiana Public Media, Beckwith said he thinks the state should monitor and control what is taught at IU and other public universities and that students and faculty feel they cannot express conservative perspectives at IU. He also said he thinks “indoctrination reigns supreme” at higher education institutions — a message he reiterated in his X post Tuesday.
“This is WOKE propaganda at its finest and why most of America looks at higher education indoctrination centers like IU as a complete joke and waste of money,” Beckwith wrote in the post.
The Indiana Daily Student is editorially independent from the university. As an auxiliary organization, the IDS generates all of its revenue through advertisements and events. While the IDS is not directly funded by IU, the Media School committed to allowing the IDS to operate in a deficit for three years in 2021, and the university covered the IDS’ nearly $1 million debt during the summer. The IDS operates out of Franklin Hall, an IU property, and pays a tax to IU.
When asked if IU had any comment on Beckwith’s claims about IU and his potential action toward the IDS, IU spokesperson Mark Bode said “The Indiana Daily Student is editorially independent from Indiana University.”
“Your tax dollars at work,” Beckwith wrote in the X post Tuesday morning. “They called him a ‘moron,’ a ‘fascist,’ and a ‘threat to democracy’ (even though we aren’t a democracy, but I don’t expect students at IU to know that.)”
As a public university, IU receives funding from the state budget. These funds are used for capital and maintenance projects, renovations, state financial aid, and other scholarships, grants and cost exemptions.
