Trump’s war on higher education is similar to his war on every other major institution. He wants everyone to be afraid of him. He wants no critics to escape his wrath. He wants dissident voices silenced. He wants to be our king, our emperor, our dictator.
He has threatened to punish law firms that have represented his opponents, such as his 2016 challenger Hillary Clinton and Special Counsel Jack Smith, who gathered evidence of Trump’s crimes but was ultimately defeated by Trump’s delaying tactics.
He has threatened the news media, hitting CBS News “60 Minutes” with a $10 billion lawsuit for editing its interview with Kamala Harris (which is standard practice) and suing ABC News for a remark by George Stephanopoulos that he didn’t like. Both of these are frivolous lawsuits, but CBS is negotiating a settlement and ABC paid out $15 million to end the lawsuit. In a pre-emptive conciliatory move, Amazon (Jeff Bezos) bought the rights to a documentary about Melania Trump for $40 million, which will be produced by Melania. Bezos owns The Washington Post, where he has told the editorial board to go easy on Trump. The Post lost some of its best journalists after Bezos groveled to Trump.
He has threatened to cut off federal funding to universities if they don’t meet his demands. The ostensible reason for targeting universities is to compel them to combat anti-Semitism on their campuses, but it’s hard to credit Trump’s sincerity. He has defended anti-Semites, dined with them, and received their support. His best friend Elon Musk supported Germany’s far-right AfD party in the recent elections. A man who cares so little about civil rights, who attacks academic freedom, who defunds education and social services, who belittles minorities, who threatens democracy, and who is so utterly lacking in compassion–is no friend of Jews.
Last Friday, Trump said on his “Truth Social” account:
“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “It’s what they deserve!”
The President of the United States cannot take away the tax-exempt status of any individual or organization. That is a decision made by the IRS, and it is illegal for the President or Vice-President or any other government official to interfere in that decision. Such a decision is made by the IRS, must be made for cause, and the institution has the right to defend itself. The process can take years.
If the President could order the IRS to audit or investigate his enemies, it would be a very dangerous policy. He can’t. With Trump, the law is a minor inconvenience, so who knows what he will do. The Supreme Court told him he has absolute immunity so maybe he can disregard the law.
The Trump administration is blasting away at Harvard on multiple fronts. The Department of Homeland Security has threatened to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, who are 27 percent of Harvard’s enrollments.
The Education Department has demanded that Harvard supply the names and email addresses of all foreign students who were expelled since 2016. The Department also wants the names of all scholars, researchers, students and faculty associated with any foreign government. Just a few days ago, Secretary McMahon informed Harvard that it is no longer eligible for new funding so long as it continues to oppose the president’s agenda. That would mean allowing Trump’s agents to take control of admissions, hiring, and curriculum. The nation’s most prestigious university would have to abandon its independence to Trump.
The Department of Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation have suspended over $2 billion in grants to Harvard for medical and scientific research. Studies that are focused on causes and cures for tuberculosis and ALS, for example, have come to a halt. Another $7 billion in research funding could be suspended. This could damage the research and work of hospitals across the Boston metro area, and the economy of Massachusetts as well. Since Massachusetts is a blue state, Trump doesn’t care.
If this looks like harassment, that’s because it is.
Trump is certainly no libertarian. He is using every federal source of funding to compel universities, colleges, schools, cities, and states to follow his commands.
That’s not democracy. That’s dictatorship.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
For someone claiming to be against anti-semitism, in addition to all the anti-semites he attracts, does not reject and even invites, he has a contradictory way of treating Jews of stature, including Ukraine’s Jewish President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as Mexico’s Jewish President, Claudia Sheinbaum.
I guess he reserves the respect and kindness just for Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, because he’s the Jewish leader that will let him turn Gaza into his own economic playground, a “Riviera of the Middle-East.” People are just pawns to him, while money and real estate, as well as the accompanying power garnered by both, have always trumped everything else in his orbit.
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Heather Cox Richardson pointed out in one of her long podcasts last week that Trump’s behavior is primarily political theater. She maintained that nothing he does really relates to policy development. Instead, his executive orders and tweets have roughly the same intention, that being testing how certain ideas fly in the public mind.
My own belief is that he intends with every outrageous post or order, to tear away public outrage or awareness of truth. Eventually, he wants to get to a point where he can just do something unconstitutional, and the people will collectively shrug. Yesterday ICE raided the immigrant part of Nashville where thousands of Hispanics live alongside Kurds, Nigerians, and many more. Pictures of little girls crying as they carted off fathers hit the news. Today the rain will hamper a vigil at my wife’s Alma mater, where a large public school sees 50-70 different languages every year in a diverse student body.
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ICE under the Trump administration is like a goon squad that goes out to terrorize families, particularly children.
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“Eventually, he wants to get to a point where he can just do something unconstitutional, and the people will collectively shrug.”
For far too many people collectively shrug now. The MAGAts even cheer him on. . . until the stupidities, inanities and insanities directly affect them.
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The letter is a hyper-partisan threat against Harvard and all private institutions of higher education. It is an example of the Trump regime cracking its authoritarian whip and expecting Harvard to heel like a trained dog. Obviously, Mcmahon, a big donor hire, who didn’t even know what IDEA was, didn’t pen the letter, but it reflects the menacing tone and racial bias that are typical of this administration. Kudos to Harvard for refusing to cave to Trump’s demands as it sets a bad precedent for other private schools in the country. Trump is a bully that will try to intimidate anyone or thing that gets in his way.
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