The Grand Strategy Behind Trump’s Crackdown on Academia

What is wrong with higher education in America? According to many on the right, a lot. This week, Ross Douthat talks to May Mailman, the lawyer behind President Trump’s battles with Harvard and Columbia, about the administration’s assault on the Ivy League and why “a glorification of victimhood” is changing the relationship between universities and the federal government.

• 02:51 - What is a “culture of victimhood”?
• 07:38 - Mailman’s political awakening
• 11:44 - Social media and protest culture in the 2010s
• 19:39 - The Trump administration’s strategy against universities
• 26:33 - The financial levers that could ensure compliance
• 36:09 - Ideological diversity and free speech
• 47:56 - How legal is all this?
• 52:25 - Higher education in 2030

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A full transcript of this episode is also available on the Times website.

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