On Thursday, President Trump singed his executive order tying federal funds to support for free speech. Surrounded by adoring college students with stories of trigger warnings and reprisals they suffered for handing out Valentines, the White House free speech show went off without a hitch.

Despite all that pomp, however, the actual text of the executive order has even less substance than the president’s speech. Indeed, it’s little more than a glorified reminder that colleges and universities are indeed bound by the First Amendment if they’re public and by their stated commitments if they’re private.