Everything I Know About Trump, I Learned In Kindergarten
I was a little brawler when I was a kid. I once decked a boy in fourth grade for cutting in front of me in the lunch line. (Disrespecting the sanctity of the lunch line was equivalent to an unprovoked nuclear strike in Gen X-era New York City.) And guess what? He started crying and never did it again. Actually, he ran home and complained to his mom, who called my mom, who rolled her eyes and went back to watching the Thorn Birds. (RIP, Richard Chamberlain.)
This is just how you deal with a bully. I have no idea whether anyone at Columbia University ever punched someone in the nose in the fourth grade for disrespecting them but based on recent events, I have my doubts.
It’s a shame that Columbia’s leadership never learned the rules of the jungle gym. Because the university assumed that if it just let Trump cut in front of it in the lunch line once, he would never do it again.
It is miraculous that after a decade, there are still smart people who believe that if they just negotiate with Trump like with any other businessperson, their issues will resolve themselves.
In March, after the Trump administration announced that it would cancel $400 million in federal grants, Columbia agreed to a list of nine demands, including taking control of the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department from its faculty and placing it under the supervision of a vice provost.
There is no question that Columbia gravely mishandled the protests on its campus last year. There is also no question that some Jewish students reported feeling harassed and unsafe at the university.
But Columbia’s capitulation allowed Trump to impose his will on the university and predictably set the stage for what happened next. Once a bully takes your lunch money, he won’t return it if you allow him to push you around. And so it is with Trump and Columbia.
The university did not get its $400 million in lost federal funding back. In fact, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had this to say yesterday about the administration’s plans to deprive more schools of more funding until they bend to Trump’s will:
Trump went further on Thursday, as the Wall Street Journal explains:
The Trump administration is planning to pursue a legal arrangement that would put Columbia University into a consent decree, according to people familiar with the matter, an extraordinary step that could significantly escalate the pressure on the school as it battles for federal funding.
A consent decree, which can last for years, would give a federal judge responsibility for ensuring Columbia changes its practices along lines laid out by the federal government. If such a decree is in place, Columbia would have to comply with it. If a judge determines the school is out of compliance, it could be held in contempt of court—punishable by penalties including fines.
Let’s be crystal clear about what is happening here. Trump is insisting on the wholesale federal takeover of a storied university under the guise of fighting antisemitism and wokeness. And it will not stop with Columbia. If the university caves again, the administration will pursue the same strategy with every other school it chooses to persecute.
Like almost every other institution of higher learning, Columbia relies on the federal government for student loans and grants for low-income students. It relies on billions of dollars in federal funding for research programs. If Trump were to pull all of it, the university would be a shell of what it is today.
Can Columbia raise the money from its alumni network to make up the federal shortage? Probably not, but it should certainly make the pitch by saying that it is standing up against the wholesale MAGA takeover of the university. It can dip into its $14.8 billion endowment. It can issue bonds, as Harvard has said it will do.
The point is, it can survive the next four years, though it would require deep and painful cuts and it would not be the world-class research institution it is today. The courts would have to decide whether the administration could strip Columbia students of federal loans and grants, simply for attending that particular university. But if Columbia teamed up with other institutions of higher education, which are also in Trump’s sights, it would be difficult for the administration to punish them all.
What Columbia cannot survive — what none of us can survive — is capitulation to a bully who will never stop. Trump is cynically misusing the Jewish community to pretend he cares about antisemitism. He does not. He cares about destroying universities that will not bend the knee to the MAGA mindset. And make no mistake, a movement rife with Christian nationalists and white supremacists does not care about Jewish students feeling threatened, unless it is to exploit their fears in order to destroy spaces where critical thinking flourishes.
That is the first thing dictators always do when they come into power. American universities should not be complicit in letting Trump do it without putting up a fight.
P.S. Columbia is not alone in giving away its milk money. Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey, who has sucked up to Trump far longer and far harder than any other Democratic governor, found out last night what that gets him. Alina Habba, who is now the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, announced last night (on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, of all places) that she is launching an investigation into Murphy.
This is after Murphy was one of the very few governors to send the New Jersey National Guard to Washington during Trump’s first term, as anti-Trump protests were engulfing the capitol. This is after Murphy publicly praised Trump’s handling of the Covid pandemic. (Seriously.) This is after Murphy and his wife skedaddled to Bedminster to hang out with Trump this summer, in the midst of the presidential campaign. This is after Murphy repeatedly socialized with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, approving tax breaks for Kushner’s New Jersey projects and wining and dining the couple at the Jersey Shore.
What did all this sucking up get Murphy? Trump smells weakness like an animal smells blood. Now, Murphy is just the most recent example of a weak politician who thought that giving Trump an inch would mean that Trump would not take a mile. He is the first governor to come under Justice Department scrutiny for protecting New Jersey’s migrant population.
That federal investigation is going to cost New Jersey taxpayers millions.
Further Reading:
The Guardian: Columbia University caves to demands to restore $400m from Trump administration
The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Wants to Install Federal Oversight of Columbia University
ROI-NJ: Murphy and Trump: Inside their surprisingly strong personal relationship
NJ.com: Murphy defends sending National Guard to D.C. amid police-brutality protests
The Hill: NJ Gov. Murphy met with Trump to wish him well after assassination attempt
Thanks for this post, Julie. I was just talking about the consent decree yesterday. That would be an absolute travesty if it occurs. And the right's cover of "anti-Semitism" as the reason for the crackdown on higher ed is as ludicrous as the phrase "there are some very fine people on both sides."
I’m a Columbia alumnus (CC’70), and I’ve been writing and speaking about the university’s craven capitulation to blackmail. (And they haven’t stood up for Mahmoud Khalil at all, of course.) Three “presidents” in one year, and each one has taken the university further into the darkness. Sixty other universities under attack. All of this is meant to appeal to the anti-“elite,” non-college Trump base, where it plays well. Thanks, Julie.