Inside the Trump Administration’s Assault on Higher Education

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1. Over the past nine months, the Trump Administration has waged an effective, unrelenting assault on higher education. D.E.I. programs have been dismantled nationwide. Columbia will pay more than $200 million to settle allegations of antisemitism and violations of antidiscrimination laws. The N.C.A.A. ruled that athletes “assigned male at birth may not compete on a women’s team,” and the Administration has also pledged to abolish the Department of Education altogether—a long-held goal among conservative activists, who believe that education should be managed locally.

   As President Trump’s assault on higher ed has unfolded, conservatives have learned to stop worrying and love federal power. “The Trump Administration’s very aggressive moves against Columbia and Harvard in 2025 would have been unthinkable in 2017,” a former Ed Department official told Emma Green. The Administration has developed a playbook for pressuring universities, which involves freezing or cancelling federal funding. While Trump has leaned into the optics of fighting élite, wealthy institutions, like Harvard and Columbia, the assault on higher education goes far beyond the Ivies. Green reports on the implications for public universities, where federal money funds critical research: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/20/inside-the-trump-administrations-assault-on-higher-education](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/20/inside-the-trump-administrations-assault-on-higher-education)

2. They hate intelligent, learned people. We can’t stomach being talked to like we’re stupid.

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