Linda McMahon’s WWE days might be over, but she’s still putting on one hell of a show.
Without missing a beat, the secretary of education proudly told CNBC Wednesday that the Trump administration doesn’t have a problem with what universities research—as long as it aligns with President Donald Trump’s agenda.
"Universities should continue to be able to do research as long as they're abiding by the laws and in sync, I think, with the administration and what the administration is trying to accomplish,” McMahon said.
She berated Harvard, specifically, for its alleged antisemitic environment on campus—a talking point that Trump and his cronies have been using to justify pulling billions of funding from Harvard in the past few months.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem even stepped in to announce that the Trump administration is barring Harvard from enrolling future international students and forcing current international students to transfer or lose their legal status.
Fortunately, this attack was swiftly blocked by a federal judge.
However, attacks on higher education have become commonplace since the beginning of Trump’s second term. Funding for research has also seen major cuts, and—due to Trump’s war on diversity, equity, and inclusion—federal grants have also gotten the axe.
A cartoon by Tim Campbell.
In March, McMahon targeted more than 50 universities that she claimed were participating in “race exclusionary” practices by supposedly not choosing enough white students and faculty members.
But for McMahon and Trump, threatening critical funding to these schools is just one big show.
“I think the president is really looking at this as, 'Okay, how can we really make our point, and what are the things that Harvard and other universities are doing that we have to call attention to,’” McMahon said.
But as she seeks to prove a point, smaller colleges—witnessing major universities like Harvard lose billions—already started reshaping their educational approach months ago.
One professor, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by the Trump administration, cautioned of the authoritarian signs unfolding before us.
“Advising students not to travel, advising students to erase their social media accounts, advising students to title their research projects in coded ways,” she said, “I mean, that's all stuff that my friends at Iranian universities would always do for self-protection.”
Now as McMahon and Trump sink their teeth into the United States’ higher education system, staff and students alike are having to consider their own self-protection here, too.
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