Céline Dion, Spike Lee, and David Simon are among the 2,500 signers of a letter against Trump's "authoritarian assault."

The Writers Guild of America represents the two largest unions on both coasts in the United States, representing writers and screenwriters in film, radio, television, and digital media. The powerful union organization demonstrated its strength just two years ago during the five-month strike that paralyzed the industry in 2023. This Tuesday, the Writers Guild once again raised its voice, this time against the attacks from the White House against the work of writers and their right to freedom of expression.

The organization presented an open letter signed by 2,500 of its members, including such well-known names in American audiovisual production as Spike Lee , David Simon, John Waters, and Alfonso Cuarón . Tony Gilroy, director of Andor ; Lilly Wachoski, from the Matrix trilogy; Scott Frank, from The Queen's Gambit; David Mandel, from Veep; and singer Céline Dion are among the long list of signatories.

In his writing They denounce the Trump administration's crackdown on freedom of expression and the press, as well as the attacks on the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects this right. "We are a union of screenwriters, television writers, and journalists built on the firm belief that bold storytelling, fearless comedy, and unflinching reporting are indispensable in a free and democratic society," the letter begins, before describing the current situation as an "authoritarian attack."

The letter explicitly refers to the lawsuits President Trump has launched against media outlets that have published or broadcast stories he disliked, and to his frontal attack on public broadcasters such as National Public Radio (NPR).

In one of these "baseless" lawsuits against Paramount over the program 60 Minutes , a $16 million settlement was reached, as the union notes in its letter. The president "regularly calls for the cancellation of news and entertainment programs that criticize him on late-night television, as recently happened with The View ." He also threatens to revoke the networks' licenses.

“Republican congressmen have collaborated in cutting public corporation funding to silence PBS and NPR,” the letter emphasizes. The letter also alleges that approval of the Paramount-Skydance merger was conditioned by the changes Paramount had committed to making at CBS News. “Despite this, Paramount still wants us to believe that the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s The Late Night show has nothing to do with this merger or with politics,” the writers, screenwriters, and journalists point out, reaffirming their “collective power as a union to fight.”

The White House is trying to limit "the stories that are told and the jokes that are made, they are trying to silence criticism," but "we don't have a king, we have a president," the letter insists, and "a president doesn't decide what is shown on television, in theaters, on stages, on bookshelves, or in the news." The union calls for resilience from the industry and citizens and reminds us that "this period will not last forever, and when it ends, the world will remember those who had the courage to speak out against it."