The second Trump administration suddenly canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants from elite universities to force them to make major policy changes to the president’s politics, which shows great aggression.
Trump officials $400 million was withdrawn In Columbia University’s research funding (Illegal, every expert). They have $175 million has been suspended Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania funding.
This may just be the beginning. They have Threat dozens of other schools. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is also trying Change its research funding formula In a way, this would be particularly difficult to hit elite colleges.
The government’s requirements for these schools include Fight against protesters Israel’s war in Gaza Reject trans female athlete From the Women’s Sports Team, the practice of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ended in admissions and campus life. For Colombia, Trump officials even demand that the Middle East, South Asia and African Studies Department be brought out of its current leadership, a threat to academic freedom from the country.
All of this fits a bigger strategy. The right-wing people are increasingly convinced that elite universities are one of the main incubators of “awakening” cultural progressivism. By advancing leftist ideas about various issues and making young people socialize to believe them, they help progressives dominate culture.
They believe that winning a cultural war requires more aggressive attacks on elite universities to hurt them and force them to have more sympathetic sympathy for rights.
Trump officials believe Tens of thousands of dollars in research funding The federal government provides academic institutions with the benefit of achieving this goal.
In this belief, they are obviously correct. On Friday, Colombia agrees yield Trump officials demandincluding giving campus police new powers to arrest student protesters and keep the East Research Department away from current leadership. (Trump officials have not said they will restore the revoked $400 million.)
All of this is to pay the price. The Republican president has never tried this key reason: This research funding is mainly used in scientific and medical research, not usually to “wake up” or political issues. Until recently, a bipartisan agreement was reached that such research funds should not be used to play political games. Now, though, it is used as a weapon in the right-wing left-wing war.
“I think it would be disciplinary to put colleges into recession, budgets down, and more pressure on competitive markets.” Conservative activist Christopher Rufo recently said. He said he wanted to threaten federal funding to universities to put them “in the horror of survival.” It’s exactly what happened.
How elite universities rely on federal funding – How conservatives realize it is leverage
As World War II made the United States a global superpower, the Cold War and the Soviet strike, the federal government provided huge commitments to research funding in an attempt to make the United States a global leader in science and technology. Much of this funding is spent on funding from higher education institutions, laboratories, experiments, and other research from university-affiliated researchers. (At the same time, student loans have become another important source of federal funding for colleges.)
for Almost very longelite universities attracted the anger of conservatives who believed they poisoned American youth’s ideas in the way of the left, while also intolerant of the right. For example, when protests against the Vietnam War and other social justice issues in the late 1960s and early 1970s, President Richard Nixon saw it In the Oval Office: “Professor is the enemy. Professor is the enemy. Write 100 times on the blackboard, never forget it.”
Although Nixon’s government and state governments hope that new laws punish universities, “few, fewer measures are implemented through these measures,” historians Written by Ellen Schrecker. Conservatives further state disputes yes Angry Events about elite universities tend to disappear.
However, over the past decade, elite universities have become increasingly central to the core of American ails American narrative – conservative parties have tried to do something for it to become more serious.
Many on the right have spent a lot of time on most of the past decade Great bad – Left turn around race, gender and sexual behavior from the mid-2010s to the season.
Colleges and universities involving suspected abuse of conservatives or people with leftist views Attracting attention in national mediaand similar controversies soon unfolded in American society.
The influential voice on the right believes that “wokeness” was largely created by elite universities. For example, Rufo, Think this is evolution A legal scholarship school called “critical race theory”, to defeat it, conservatives need Pursuing elite universities.
Blog Author Curtis YarvinMeanwhile, progressives have ruled the country’s culture for many years due to the “cathedral” (elite academic and media institutions), which set acceptable political discourse and distorted reality in his narrative to fit their preferred ideological framework.
Such an explanation seems to be present to those rightists who are frustrated by left-cultural transfer. It is named as a specific enemy that can be opposed and is part of the strategy of gaining rights cultural power.
So by 2021, the then candidate (and Yale Law School alum) JD Vance considers conservative “It is necessary to be honest and aggressive in attacking the university of this country.” Vance said so much “what is driving truth and knowledge in this country,” Vance said, fundamentally, it is determined by “very hostile” universities. He asked, why did conservatives accept this situation? Is it time to do something?
Why the Second Trump Administration Finally Trys to Fund Universities
During the first Trump administration, the idea of withdrawing federal research funds from colleges due to excessive beatings. Trump even signed executive orders He claims to do so in 2019. But it turns out that this is mostly toothless. The appetite for punishing universities is not that strong yet to achieve this.
However, in the early 2020s, the rebound to academia was further intensified due to new controversies.
The second Trump administration is more willing to bend over and blatantly break the law to try to get what they want.
Part of this is strong opposition to medical institutions. During the Covid-19 pandemic, distrust among scientists and public health experts has deepened Vaccine suspicion and other disputes. Therefore, putting medical research funds at risk seems unimaginable to them. Indeed, this can be said.
As Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now responsible for most of the research expenditures conducted through the NIH. Kennedy and his allies seem to not only be willing, but completely Desire to bring the destruction ball to medical research state. ($250 million freezing $400 million Colombia funds are NIH funds)
Meanwhile, another rebound began in response to campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. Many students and faculty supported the protests, but other students, including major donors, opposed them and believed that Jewish students became new and unsafe on campus. Trump sees it as a cause: his threat to Colombia is through his new “Task Force to Fight Anti-Semitism. ”
Now, the last reason the attack on colleges is that the second Trump administration is more willing to bend over and blatantly break the law in an attempt to get what they want.
Analysts say it is illegal to withdraw funds from Colombia. Michael Dorf, a professor at Cornell Law School, wrote The federal government can cut funds to punish civil rights violations, but only after a long process. Instead, maybe inspired by Elon MuskHow to move quickly and violate the lawTrump officials just keep moving forward.
All this seems to have been good for the government so far, as universities seem to acknowledge their demands.
Some schools are taking the initiative: The University of California announced last week Mandatory diversity statement will be deleted From the recruitment process.
While Trump’s withdrawal of Colombia’s funds seemed illegal, the school did not file a lawsuit in court to stop it. Instead, Colombia chose to reach a deal with Trump officials. according to Douglas Bellkin of the Wall Street Journalthe university fears that the court struggle will only stimulate Trump’s team to find other legal avenues to regain these or other funds. (Colombia gets more in federal funds that have not been revoked.)
So it seems that Trump officials and right-wing activists do indeed figure out how to effectively utilize federal funds as leverage to force universities. Such cuts would be devastating and universities would be desperate to avoid them.
But Belkin’s Columbia source cited another reason for the school’s concessions: The school’s leadership also “sees a great overlap between the required campus changes and Trump’s demands.”
Therefore, according to the report, the university’s trustees and administrators believe that the Gaza war protests have gone too far and need to be detained. At least in part, they use Trump’s request as an excuse to make the changes they want to make.
It is part of a broader dynamic, with many elites previously sympathizing with the cause of the left, or at least reluctant to fight them – Turn around. Meanwhile, many progressives seem exhausted and disillusioned, no longer fighting back with great enthusiasm. This is no longer the first Trump administration when social justice radicals believe that the arc of history is bent in their direction.
The meaning here is ominous. Trump’s research funding ransomware works so well that he (and future Republican presidents) will surely use similar strategies time and time again. Can future federal funding prerequisites adhere to a conservative agenda? How do universities rely on federal cash to coexist with long-term academic freedom in the world?
