The Trump administration is currently engaged in what critics describe as an unprecedented assault on institutions dedicated to higher learning and scientific research. While many nations have historically imposed neoliberal logic on academia to increase productivity, the Trumpist approach of subjugating scientific inquiry to political imperatives is viewed by observers as a unique threat to democratic norms, drawing comparisons to the practices of the Soviet Union under Stalin. The administration's current trajectory also targets foreign students and international collaboration, which analysts argue represents a significant blow to U.S. soft power.
A primary mechanism for this shift is a rule change initiated by Project 2025’s Russell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget. This policy would subject all federal grants to review by political appointees, effectively ending the long-standing practice of allocating science funding based on the judgment of peer researchers. This measure provides the administration with significant leverage to threaten universities, implying that institutions failing to align with presidential priorities could face consequences regarding their funding.
Michael Kratsios, Trump’s science adviser and a former employee of Peter Thiel, has introduced a strategy that aims to shift decision-making power from university experts to private corporations. Kratsios argues that private firms, aided by AI, are better equipped to identify potential breakthroughs. However, critics point out that this marks a departure from the post-World War II model of federal investment in basic, open-ended research—a strategy that has historically fueled American innovation and economic growth. The new approach is widely perceived as a move to divert public funding from universities, which are viewed as political enemies, toward tech-sector allies.
The administration's stance also extends to international collaboration and foreign students. In a move described as Stephen Miller-style nativism, PhD student visas are now limited to a four-year window. This timeframe is often insufficient for advanced research, forcing students to navigate costly and time-consuming appeals to the Department of Homeland Security instead of focusing on their work. Despite the historical contribution of foreign researchers to American national wealth, these contributions are being sidelined.
This ongoing hostility toward higher education is driven by a coalition of interests, including Maga supporters, Silicon Valley oligarchs who seek to monetize university functions, and conservatives who aim to dismantle the existing academic system. As JD Vance stated in 2021, "Universities are the enemy," a sentiment that now appears to guide a broad, coordinated effort to reshape or destroy the nation’s research landscape.
In the spirit of Stephen Miller-type nativism, international donors are targeted no less than international collaboration in general; visas for PhD students are now limited to four years (an unrealistic time frame for many academic subjects), with possible extensions if students spend time and money on appealing to the Department of Homeland security (instead of doing actual research). The fact that many researchers in the past have stayed in the US after obtaining their doctorates, contributing to national wealth (just like America Firsters would presumably want) or went back to their countries with good feelings to the US – all that counts for nothing.
What explains such self-harm? Rightwing hostility to higher education is nothing new: from intellectuals supposedly being communist eggheads in the 1950s, to moral panics about “political correctness” in the 1990s and “wokeness” in recent years, there is the basic stance made explicit by JD Vance in 2021: “Universities are the enemy.” But Trump’s rule has brought together a novel coalition, one divided by many issues but united in their desire to destroy universities as we know them. Among them: the Maga hardcore with its traditional anti-intellectualism and nativism; the Silicon Valley oligarchs who imagine their companies replacing (and monetizing) university functions; and conservatives in name, but radicals in practice who want to take over higher education, but, failing that, would like to burn the whole system down.
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