Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers. She is my friend.
Randi wrote:
President Donald Trump has declared war on America’s colleges and universities, demanding they bow to his demands on what they can teach and whom they can admit or hire. Trump’s illegal and autocratic actions are tantamount to a war on knowledge intended to force schools to bend the knee to his ideology and chill free speech and academic pursuit.
Trump says much of his attack on higher education is in response to antisemitism on campuses. Without a doubt, there was antisemitism before the heinous actions by Hamas on Oct. 7 and the ensuing war, and it has grown since. We need to address antisemitism on campus and ensure Jewish students, and all students, feel safe. But Trump is weaponizing antisemitism investigations to attack disfavored speech and stoke culture wars, distrust and division, and to undermine higher education as a bulwark of democracy and an engine of our economy. It’s wrong, antidemocratic and unconstitutional. The administration is using Jews as an excuse to disappear students who are here legally, with immigration officials arresting and attempting to deport students who have committed no crimes—without due process, a linchpin of American democracy.
This may help Trump’s aim to divide Americans, but it won’t make campuses safer for Jewish students or answer the real issues around antisemitism. That’s one reason that a coalition of Jewish organizations released a statement saying that Trump’s actions make Jewish students and the Jewish community less safe.
Trump has launched investigations into dozens of colleges and universities and stripped billions in research grants from schools. The administration has issued demands ranging from direct government oversight of academic programs—or in the case of Columbia University, oversight of the whole institution—to dictating disciplinary policies and controlling hiring decisions. It is targeting students for exercising their First Amendment rights, and revoking visas for faculty and staff. The administration’s intent is to remake America’s higher education system in its image through blunt force.
The freedom to pursue knowledge, the freedom of expression and the freedom of speech are fundamental American rights that are foundational to a functioning democracy. America’s public schools, colleges and universities cultivate the exploration of knowledge and free expression and empower students to become engaged citizens. One of their hallmarks is that they are a marketplace of ideas where free and open discussion and disagreement is encouraged. That is enabled by ensuring our education institutions are independent from government control or coercion. When a government asserts control over what can be taught, thought or said, democracy itself is at risk.
The free pursuit of knowledge empowers Americans.
Stripping research and innovation funding to force compliance will hurt America’s competitiveness and help our adversaries outpace us in technological and other advancements. America’s university research and innovation centers have long been the envy of the world. The federal government, through federal agencies and grants, is a fundamental powerhouse and supporter of health, scientific, technology and other research. The U.S. is the world leader in this research—research that the private sector cannot and will not do on its own and that leads to discoveries, innovations, cures and advances that benefit the common good and move our society forward. Colleges and universities are also anchors of their local communities, supporting local jobs and small businesses, providing community gathering spaces, and growing industries tied to university research and innovation.
This war on knowledge and expression must be opposed in the courts, on the streets, and by our colleges and universities.
As the largest union of higher education staff and faculty, the AFT joined our affiliate, the American Association of University Professors, to sue the Trump administration on behalf of our members for unlawfully cutting millions in federal funding for public health research at Columbia.
Last week, Harvard University boldly rejected Trump’s unlawful and unprecedented demands for government control over it. Harvard’s president wrote that “no government … should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”
Americans have also taken to the streets to oppose this war on knowledge and freedoms. The attacks on higher education were a major focus of the April 5 Hands Off actions that mobilized tens of thousands of Americans across the country to reject Trump’s chaotic and cruel agenda.
The free pursuit and availability of knowledge empowers Americans, strengthens our economy and democracy, and is foundational for opportunity. That’s why we all must take a stand against this war on knowledge.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have taken it as a given right along that Donald Trump wants the citizens of this nation to be both individually and collectively as stupid as he is.
LikeLike
As stupid and as ignorant
LikeLiked by 1 person
No – he’s simply trying to add to the legion of his supporters, the uneducated, whom he “loves”.
From: Diane Ravitch’s blog comment-reply@wordpress.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2025 11:01 AM
To: rwieck@hotmail.com rwieck@hotmail.com
Subject: Randi Weingarten: Trump’s War on Knowledge
Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federati
LikeLike
Trump’s attempt to seize opposition to Netanyahu and his genocidal war in Gaza by in the name of antisemitism only helps build a solid opposition to Israel in particular and a hostility to all Jews in general. Weingarten correctly explains the issue
LikeLike
The christian nationalist theofascists only support anti-semitism in furtherance of their millennia old Middle Eastern desert tribal myth of their supposed savior returning after certain conditions of the Jewish people is realized. They don’t give a damn about the Jewish people for anything else.
LikeLike
Trump’s war on information and knowledge is part of his plan to exert control over people. Without data, access to correct history and information and a lack of regulatory oversight, many busy people will be kept in the dark, particularly if Trump continues to use threats and propaganda to marginalize the media. “60 Minutes” chief, Bill Owens, recently resigned from CBS under pressure from the MAGA parent company. When people live in darkness, it is difficult for democracy to survive. This is the goal of the right wing extremists. The oligarchs and kleptocrats can operate freely without being held accountable for their misdeeds in a lawless society that caters to the ultra-wealthy.
LikeLike
Thank you, Randi. A powerful statement.
This disdain for anything or anyone intellectual is gross and embarrassing. Professors have been labeled “liberals” who shed their beliefs on students since VietNam and well before that. Unlike 1930’s Germany attack on and dismissal of professors, Trump can’t get rid of the people.
His tactics: Vague directives (the DEI letter to states), the “Are you now or have you ever been…?” McCarthy strategy to silence, take funding, and playing the savior (complex) against anti-Semitism (but not racism or sexism).
I digress please – – As for “we all must take a stand against this war on knowledge” – we need the voice, power, and outreach of the AFT (and others) against the actions – but ALSO against the two sources that are supposed to be holding “them” accountable:
Power and strength in numbers. Your voice and AFT’s numbers will go a long way in calling out those who should be holding the “administration” accountable.
LikeLike
Do you have even one independent thought in your head other than what you get pre-approval from Randi to recite? The leader of an organization that cares not a lick about how awful public schools are for kids – just so long as the teachers pay union dues.
LikeLike
Sukinzeeggs!
LikeLike
The quality of trolls, like everything else, has certainly degenerated under the second Orange Moron administration, don’t you think? They are approaching the ignorance and stupidity of IQ 47 himself.
LikeLike
This morning I read in the Atlantic that Hitler imposed tariffs on Germany’s major trading partners, after he became chancellor, tanking Germany’s economy putting it solidly on the path to World War II.
So, when I read this post, I started fact-checking to verify all the footsteps Trump has stepped in wearing Hitler’s shoes, following the same path to another World War, one that our species and many others cannot survive.
“While Hitler and the Nazi regime did not declare a formal ‘war’ on colleges and universities in Germany, they did exert significant control and influence over them, effectively restructuring them according to Nazi ideology. This control manifested in various ways, including dismissing Jewish professors, targeting the student body with laws, and removing any perceived dissent.”
Sources: University of Michigan Heritage Project, Facing History, and Experiencing History.
Trump is following Hitler’s path that leads to the next World War.
The BIG lies:
Walking in Hitler’s Shoes: Trump has targeted Minorites, liberals, any judge who doesn’t rule in his favor, LGBTQ, undocumented aliens, et al.
Walking in Hitler’s Shoes: Trumps lies before the election that the economy was a wreck, inflations higher than ever, too many unemployed, increased crime rates.
“Nazi propaganda repeatedly claimed that Jews held power behind the scenes in Britain, Russia, and the United States. It further spread claims that the Jews had begun a war of extermination against Germany, and used these to assert that Germany had a right to annihilate the Jews in self-defense.”
Walking in Hitler’s Shoes: Trump’s threats to make Canada the 51st state, bomb cartels in Mexico without letting Mexico know, invade Panama and take back the canal, grab Greenland, et al.
“Prior to initiating World War II, Adolf Hitler engaged in a pattern of blaming other nations and using aggressive rhetoric to threaten war. He leveraged propaganda to portray Germany as a victim and used the Treaty of Versailles as a tool to fuel resentment and unite the German population.
“Hitler frequently blamed Germany’s problems on other countries, especially the Allied powers and Jewish people, whom he accused of manipulating international politics and undermining German interests.
“Hitler used a highly combative style of diplomacy, making demands of other nations and threatening war if those demands were not met. This was particularly evident in his “Sudetenland crisis” in 1938, where he threatened to invade Czechoslovakia if the Sudetenland, a region with a large German-speaking population, was not ceded to Germany.
“Hitler and the Nazi Party employed propaganda extensively to create a narrative where Germany was being victimized by others, thus justifying their aggressive actions and fueling a strong nationalistic sentiment.”
More footsteps Walking in Hitler’s Shoes:
Here’s What Trump has said about nuclear weapons.
“I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.”
If I had more time and kept digging, I’d probably find Trump taking more of the same steps Hitler took on his path to World War II.
Trump doesn’t have to be a Nazi wearing a Nazi armband to walk the same path Hitler walked while wearing Hitler’s shoes to cause worse chaos and havoc.
Hitler had the swastika on armbands to represent the Nazi regime.
Trump has MAGA.
Oh, I just remembered this step Trump took to Madison Square Garden, the same path Hitler took to New York City for the same reasons.
DNC projects message tying Trump to Hitler on Madison Square Garden during rally
LikeLike
Slightly on topic, I’ve been thinking that we who are educators need to be more respectful to the president. We know better how to talk to and about special needs people. He is not a narcissist; he is a person suffering from narcissistic paranoid personality disorder. He is not fighting a war on knowledge; he is a person in need of extra support in learning the importance of knowledge. Winks from the Lefty Teacher from the sometimes Leftish Coast.
LikeLike
I once again call upon Ms. Weingarten to call a nationwide walkout to end the federal testing mandate, which is child abuse.
LikeLike
In other news, the deranged moron at the head of our nation STILL, TODAY thinks that foreign nations pay the tariffs that we place on their goods. Here is the quotation, today, in his typical toddler English, from the orange ass, uh, mouth (it’s so difficult to tell these apart):
“It was a long time ago, we were an all tariff nation. Foreign nations paid taxes, they paid money to us in the form of tariffs, and that was when we were the wealthiest. We were the wealthiest proportionately than we ever were.”
LikeLike
So, here’s a question. Does he actually believe this? Has no one explained to him how tariffs work, after all this time? Or did he not follow the explanation (quite possible), or does he simply say this, not believing it himself, for the benefit of the idiots who think he is some sort of financial genius?
Or is his dementia so advanced that he forgets, from day to day, what he learned about how they worked on the previous day? I think this the most likely explanation.
LikeLike
A little exercise in Trumpistemology.
LikeLike
OK, I am thinking of a 78-year-old man who thinks
that other countries pay the tariffs we place on their goods;
that Alabama is on the East Coast;
that we should nuke hurricanes and sweep forests;
that Denmark would want to sell Greenland to us;
that we should send astronauts to the Sun;
that doctors should try injecting patients with disinfectant (“kinda like a cleaning”);
that Frederick Douglass is alive and well and “doing a great job”;
that stealth airplanes are actually invisible;
that the Congo might be somewhere in Africa;
that he is “the chosen one”;
that windmills cause cancer;
that the U.S. has developed a “hydrosonic” missile;
that “When you’re a star, you can do anything. You can grab them by the pussy”;
that he invented the word caravan;
that he spoke with the President of the U.S. Virgin Islands;
that the Continental Army captured the British airports;
that Article II of the Constitution says that the President can do anything he [his word] wants;
that it’s a good thing that China doesn’t have a border with India; and
that a dementia screening is an IQ test.
I know. It all sounds too good to be true, but here we have him. I give you, ladies and gentlemen, Dementia Donnie, President of the United States.
LikeLike