Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump and his cabinet of far-right cronies have launched relentless attacks on America’s higher education system. These moves are reminiscent of actions in other countries experiencing democratic backsliding such as Hungary, Russia, Turkey, and India, where regimes have quashed independent thought and research. In the US, self-censorship is now rising, critical research has been halted, and some academics are fleeing the country. Meanwhile, Europeans and others are snapping up American talent that refuses to submit.
Hungary, which has close ties to Trump and his allies, has been a university-smashing innovator. More than simply undermining the independence of higher education, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took public funding away from existing universities and propped up his own collection of “pet universities” to preach his ideological agenda (see Global Project Against Hate and Extremism’s (GPAHE) previous reporting on some of these pro-Orbán universities here). Laws restricted the operations of universities deemed to be a part of the opposition. The Trump administration seems to be taking a page out of Hungary’s book, with Vice President JD Vance having said, “the universities are the enemy.”
Promotion of Project 2025’s Agenda
Restructuring the university system by using federal funding as leverage to reform “woke” universities is a key part of the Heritage Foundation’s rights-stripping Project 2025 (See GPAHE’s analysis of Project 2025 here). A recent analysis by Inside Higher Ed showed that nearly one-third of all policy recommendations related to universities laid out in the 900+-page manifesto had been either fully or partially completed in the administration’s first 12 weeks. This includes imposing Project 2025 views on universities, removing the “woke agenda,” and effectuating a far-right culture shift that rejects civil rights protections.
The Trump administration has leveraged federal funding to force universities to submit to its far-right agenda, often under the guise of uprooting “antisemitism” and “discriminatory” Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) practices. This has notably been the case with Ivy League universities such as Columbia and Harvard, where the administration threatened or canceled federal funding. The administration has resorted to withholding nearly $400 million given to Columbia, for example, as leverage to push certain demands, including overhauling its discipline process, banning masks, expelling some students, putting an academic department under review, giving its campus security “full law enforcement authority,” and reforming its admissions practices.
Columbia caved to Trump’s demands and laid off more than 180 employees, while Harvard has decided to push back in court. The administration has also used the Justice Department to bully editors of academic journals, demanding they clarify how they deal with “competing viewpoints” in their submissions, under the assumption that they have “conceded that they are partisans in various scientific debates.”
Countries experiencing democratic backsliding often undermine the independence of institutions of higher learning and attempt to transform university culture to support the ideological bent of the autocrat. In Hungary, Orbán’s political party Fidesz funneled enormous sums of public funds to pro-Orbán institutions such as Ludovika – University of Public Service and the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), which both serve to promote his ideological agenda (see GPAHE’s previous reporting of these universities here).
In Narendra Modi’s India, his far-right Hindu nationalist regime sought to rid the university system of “anti-national” individuals and educational materials that were deemed to go against the national interest. In Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Union of Rectors (RUR), representing heads of 700 universities and appointed by the Kremlin, published a letter stating their support for Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, called for others to support the invasion, and claimed that their main duty was to “to instill patriotism in young people,” described as the “desire to help the motherland.” Over the past few years, many Russian universities have received new Kremlin-approved leadership.
Self-Censorship and Discrimination Increasing
These attacks have led to self-censorship that has already started to affect academic freedom. At NYU, a public talk on the cuts at US Agency for International Development (USAID) and humanitarian aid to Gaza by the former head of Doctors Without Borders was cancelled for being “anti-governmental,” while Harvard, Columbia, and other universities are reportedly reviewing Middle Eastern studies programs for alleged “antisemitism” or a supposed lack of pro-Israel views. Other cancelled events include a speech by an Israeli historian and genocide scholar at Northeastern University, a Lunar New Year event at Michigan State University, and an annual Black Alumni Reunion and Women’s History Month event at Ohio University.
Trump’s relentless attacks on trans rights is also affecting university programming. The February 5, 2025, ban on trans women participating in women’s sports, which the White House refers to as the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order, has led organizations including the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to implement the ban at university sports events, while Harvard removed their transgender inclusion policy from their athletics website.
On February 6, the Department of Education’s Craig Trainor, a former employee at the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute (AFPI) (see GPAHE’s previous reporting here), stated that San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association would be investigated for “Title IX violations” for allegedly allowing trans athletes to participate despite the ban. On April 16, 2025, Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) chose to sue the state of Maine, and the University of Pennsylvania on April 28, for not following through with the ban on university campuses.
Not Just in the USA
Foreign institutions have not been spared Trump’s assault. Starting in March, American embassies began sending threatening letters to universities in countries such as Belgium, Portugal and Australia, about whether their programs were in compliance with the administration’s executive orders. The US unilaterally ended funding for several programs abroad, including the “American Corners” at Portugal’s Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), which provided a space for promoting American culture.
In Belgium, Flemish universities received a bizarre letter asking whether they were contributing to the influx of fentanyl into the US. In Australia, recipients of US funding for scientific research were asked to respond to a questionnaire within 48 hours regarding their adherence to US interests, including whether they recognized “only two genders.” In Portugal, universities received letters asking about their policies on “climate agendas” and “gender ideologies,” and their contacts with “communist and socialist parties,” as well as the “the United Nations, the People’s Republic of China, Iran and Russia.”
Threats of Retribution
For the universities that choose to oppose an authoritarian agenda, the consequences can be dire. Once again, Hungary has led the way. The regime shut down Central European University (CEU), a western-oriented university based in Hungary and Austria due to its ties to Orbán’s arch nemesis and philanthropist George Soros and his Open Society Foundation, which has promoted a rights-respecting approach to immigration and LGBTQ+ issues. Fidesz passed legislation, under the guise of targeting any university that was chartered abroad, that singled out CEU. CEU chose to close its doors rather than comply.
In America, the Trump administration has launched widespread investigations and threatened retribution for universities that resist him. The administration chose to leverage Harvard’s federal funding to force the institution to eliminate all DEI programs, reform hiring practices, crack down on alleged “antisemitic” student protests, and impose new disciplinary measures. Harvard responded by suing. This led to Trump cancelling $3 billion in grants, asking for records under the guise that the university had not followed transparency laws for federal funding, threatening Harvard’s ability to accept foreign students through the Student and Visitor Exchange Program, and pushing for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status. It is a crime for the president or a member of the executive branch to ask for IRS intervention in any situation.
The administration also launched federal civil rights investigations into 45 other universities for Title VI violations related to “widespread antisemitic harassment” and “sex discrimination,” a reference to pro-Palestinian protests on campuses, DEI policies, and inclusion of trans people in university life.
Immigration Status Threatened
Like other autocrats before him, Trump has gone beyond the precedent set by previous presidents to use his power to intimidate foreign students with opposing political opinions. The administration has cruelly harassed international students and non-citizen students. From January 20 to April 24, Inside Higher Ed reported that “over 280 colleges and universities,” both public and private, identified more than 1,800 international students and recent graduates on F-1 or J-1 student visas who have had their legal status unilaterally changed by the State Department. These actions have so far been paused after a court order declaring the revocation of legal status unconstitutional.
A significant number of those whose immigration status was revoked, or who have been arrested in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, have been students subjected to flimsy claims of antisemitism or singled out for participating in protests deemed “antisemitic.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in cables to diplomatic missions that State Department officials were to scrutinize the social media accounts of students applying for visas, while pro-Trump groups outside of the administration, such as the Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther, are suggesting “propaganda” purges and public firings of pro-Palestinian professors whom they deem “Hamas supporters.”
Trump has conceded on Truth Social that the issue at hand is primarily with students who participate in protests he views as “illegal.”
Source: Truth Social
In order to undermine support for opposition protest movements, authoritarians in other countries have also targeted students and academic staff. In Turkey, President Erdoğan pushed out or revoked the tenure of over 6,000 academics for their alleged participation in a 2016 “coup attempt.” Many of them have been placed on blacklists and cannot find new employment, and some have even had their passports revoked. After Turkey exercised its veto power over Sweden joining NATO, Erdoğan leveraged Sweden’s hopes to join the military alliance to extradite academic dissidents who fled Turkey.
In Russia, crackdowns by the state universities, such as at the western-oriented Higher School of Economics (HSE), took place, punishing and even expelling students who participated in the pro-democracy protests in 2021 and anti-war protests in 2022. After the protests against the invasion of Ukraine, it was reported that faculty members at universities such as HSE were tasked with searching through social media for evidence of students who participated.
Trump’s moves have had an impact, with universities choosing to comply with the administration’s preferred policies. Columbia and Yale have imposed much harsher punishments against students who protest on campus. Yale, for example, received praise from Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism for disbanding a student protest, which included Jewish and Israeli individuals, organized in opposition to the visit of Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. At New York University (NYU), students who participated in a pro-Palestine sit-in protest, were declared personae non grata and only allowed back on campus to take their exams if they signed a “use of space” agreement that included a pledge not to protest on university property. After The Intercept reported on the story, the school rescinded its actions.
In other instances, universities have collaborated with the administration’s deportations in various ways. Inside Higher Ed has reported that at least 15 Florida universities are seeking to give their campus police immigration enforcement powers, while eight have already signed partnership deals with ICE.
On April 29, Politico reported that a team of ICE officials and contractors cross-referenced a list of more than 1.3 million names of international students through a federal database to determine whether any have had previous interactions with the criminal justice system. Of the 6,400 students whose immigration status was terminated, many of them had only minor infractions or dropped charges, which led some universities to prevent them from attending classes or conducting research. After the move ended up generating hundreds of lawsuits, the administration abruptly reversed course and restored the status of thousands of students.
Defunding Universities
Attacking the funding of independent universities is also a common authoritarian tactic. In Hungary, the responsibility for funding universities was placed in the hands of semi-private trusts called a KEKVA, chaired by individuals close to Fidesz. This led to a gradual transfer of funds, property, and endowments away from traditional universities and towards Orbán’s pet projects such as MCC.
In the United States, Trump’s blitz to cut federal funding for universities and DOGE-related cuts to grant programs have had a similar effect of stifling funding for research, ultimately degrading the effectiveness and reputation of American universities. These include major cuts to the Fulbright scholarship, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), nearly $2 billion in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Teachers College grants for training educators of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, $4 million in funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), $54 million in grants from the Department of Transportation, and nearly $900 million in contracts from the Department of Education’s research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
Community colleges, which have lost a significant source of funding for their operational budgets, have been forced to institute cuts to staff and programs affected by the administration’s executive orders, while Ivy League institutions have been forced to tap into alternative sources of funding, while having to finance lawsuits against Trump.
Investigations into “antisemitism” have resulted in funding freezes of more than $1 billion at Cornell University, $790 million at Northwestern University, $510 million at Brown University, $175 million at the University of Pennsylvania, and $650 million at Columbia University. Some of the 60 other universities targeted by the administration include George Mason University, Johns Hopkins University, Ohio State University, Portland State University, Rutgers University, University of North Carolina, University of South Florida, University of Virginia, and the University of Wisconsin. Other funding cuts for various programs also resulted in a loss of $17.5 million at the University of South Carolina, $25.5 million at the University of Colorado, $4.4 million at Colorado State University, $14.2 million at Indiana University, $50-$65 million at Florida State University, and at least $2.6 billion from the various University of California campuses.
Students have not been spared from the cuts. Recent administration actions have targeted marginalized and disadvantaged students’ ability to get a college education. These include the administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, restart collections for students’ loans in default, remove certain student loan forgiveness programs, eliminate subsidized federal loans, increase loan payments for certain categories of students, and cap the total amount that students can borrow from the federal government.
This assault on higher education in the United States has led to what Science calls a US “Brain Drain.” Other countries are taking advantage of the chaos, luring academics who lost funding or are fleeing the United States. As applications from Americans are on the rise, universities in Europe, Canada, Australia, and China have set up programs oriented towards hiring researchers from the United States and providing them with funding for their research. The European Union is in the process of creating a “super grant” of 500 million euros to attract talented researchers from the United States. All of which will leave American universities weaker and less effective, which fits with Trump and his allies’ far-right views that higher education is the enemy.
