Since taking office on January 20, the presidency of Donald J. Trump has launched a full-scale assault on higher educational institutions across the country.

Perhaps the most striking attacks have been leveled against the elite institutions such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology located in the northeast.

Trump has threatened to withdraw the tax-exempt status of Harvard while suspending funding for research grants to academic departments which had already been allocated by the Congress as well as other government agencies. The White House wants to audit professors and students for their views on various subjects such Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) along with the demands for full disclosure and divestment from financial institutions with holdings in the State of Israel.

The current administration’s antipathy towards higher education is a by-product of its racist, misogynist and anti-science viewpoints. Placing someone with the background of a Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as head of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a reflection of the grave threat posed by the Trump administration related to the overall public health and well-being of the population.

RFK Jr. has gone on record for his anti-vaccine views which were withdrawn from publication by Rolling Stone magazine years ago. He has been quoted as saying that “no vaccine is safe and effective.” In recent actions by the HHS, at the aegis of RFK Jr., a panel of experts known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP) was reconstituted prompting concern among the medical and scientific community.

These unsubstantiated claims surrounding vaccine safety comes at a time of a recent upsurge in cases of measles in the southwest region of the U.S. This infectious disease had been virtually eliminated in the U.S. for decades. Unfortunately, anti-vaccination misinformation has penetrated significant segments of the population creating skepticism even amid the worst pandemic in more than a century.

A report published by the New York Times, said of the situation involving the higher educational institutions which conduct a lot of scientific research involving public health:
“The Trump administration’s biggest target has been Harvard University, the oldest and richest school in the United States. The university has roughly $9 billion at stake in its fight with the federal government. The dispute erupted after Harvard rejected the Trump administration’s proposals, including one for the use of an outsider to audit ‘programs and departments that most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture.’ The government also wanted Harvard to curb the power of its faculty and report international students who commit conduct violations. The Trump administration almost immediately began cutting off billions in funds. Officials have since said they would direct federal agencies to end all of their remaining contracts with the school. The government has also told the university not to expect grant money in the future.” (https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-university-college.html)

Yet, Harvard and MIT are not the only universities facing this assault by the Trump administration. The entire framework of higher education where values of academic freedom and first amendment rights are ostensibly paramount, is under threat.

The attacks on DEI are extended to a wide range of academic research and teaching pursuits such as African, African American, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, Labor and Gender Studies. As far as the MAGA Republican leadership is concerned, any focus on the historical and social legacies of racial, gender and class domination and exploitation should not be researched or taught in a higher educational setting.

Other institutions targeted by the White House according to the New York Times include:
“Brown, which the Trump administration said stood to lose $510 million. Columbia, which is hoping to regain about $400 million in canceled grants and contracts after it bowed to a list of demands from the federal government. But the administration is now taking aim at the university’s accreditation. Cornell, the target of a cut of at least $1 billion. Northwestern, which administration officials said would be stripped of $790 million. The University of Pennsylvania, which saw $175 million in federal funding suspended because of its approach to a transgender athlete who participated in school sports in 2022. Princeton, which said ‘dozens’ of grants had been suspended. The White House indicated that $210 million was at risk. Officials at some of the universities have been puzzled by the cuts, which they have sometimes learned about through social media, and insisted that they had taken action to combat antisemitism.” (https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-university-college.html)

In response to these attacks by the White House, most higher educational institutions have not done much to challenge the Trump administration. In March, Harvard seems to have acquiesced to the demands of the government.

However, in April, Harvard filed a lawsuit to halt what the White House was carrying out. President Alan M. Garber said that the institution would not surrender its independence to the administration.

In a similar situation, the University of Virginia was targeted by the Trump administration forcing President James A. Ryan to resign. The university was accused of taking applicants’ racial background into consideration regarding their admissions.

Since the conclusion of World War II, there has been an escalation in federal funding for higher education. This later increased after the emergence of the former Soviet Union as a major competitor in the fields of science and space travel.

Today, the growth of Socialist China and their advances in numerous fields of computer technology, mass production and scientific research also provided a rationale for funding of colleges and universities in the U.S. Consequently, these domestic policy imperatives will lead to a drastic decline in innovation inside the largest capitalist economy in the world.

Crackdown on Palestine Solidarity Proved to be a Turning Point

During the previous academic year of 2023-2024, in the aftermath of the Al Aqsa Flood, demonstrations erupted throughout the U.S. in solidarity with the Palestinian people, particularly those living in the Gaza Strip. Daily massacres were carried out leaving tens of thousands dead and many more injured and displaced.

The fact that the solidarity actions with the Palestinians were centered on the college and university campuses made them a target of the White House, Congress and the mainstream media. The government and media outlets, whether corporate or government-controlled, quickly labeled these rallies, marches, building occupations and encampments as antisemitic. Such characterizations illustrated the institutional commitments to maintaining the status quo regarding U.S. foreign policy towards West Asia.

Several university presidents were forced to resign during the previous academic year including at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. These two presidents, Liz Magill of U-Penn and Claudine Gay of Harvard, were by no means proponents of Palestinian liberation and anti-Zionism. Their only “crimes” were their failure to tell members of Congress that they would ban freedom of speech rights only as it related to the Palestinian question.

Palestine solidarity demonstrations were held at over 100 campuses from the fall of 2023 to the spring of 2024. A handful of these higher educational institutions negotiated viable agreements with student, staff and faculty groupings related to full disclosure and divestment. Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of higher educational administrations followed the hostile policies of the former Biden White House and violently repressed the demonstrations.

In the spring of 2024, over 3,100 people were arrested on 60 different campuses throughout the U.S. Some students were expelled from the institutions while others had scholarships, student housing and even degrees withdrawn.

The fact that these higher education institutions were willing to go along with the Biden administration in crushing the Palestine solidarity movement on the campuses set the stage for further repressive measures. Apparently, the denial of academic freedom and protective speech on campuses by the administrations was not enough to satisfy the desires of the current White House.

Since these university administrations and board of governors were willing to roll over in the face of government pressure related to Palestine, made them easy prey for the Trump White House when they demanded even more concessions to their extreme right-wing policies. To reverse these attacks on higher education, it will require a broad movement encompassing not only students. Workers, faculty members and the public in general should view these attacks by successive government administrations as a key element in the rapid imposition of fascist rule in the U.S.