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Seeking to set a new course for the conservative movement, J.D. Vance in 2021 declared war on institutions of American higher education. He proposed to the National Conservatism Conference that because universities teach “progressive orthodoxies” that consist of “deceit and lies,” conservatives must “honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country.”

“We are giving our children over to our enemies,” Vance declared, “and it is time we stopped doing it.”

The second Trump administration has systematically pursued Vance’s agenda. Using as leverage the considerable funding supplied by the federal government for scientific research, one of Donald Trump’s first acts back in office was to seek to pressure American universities to refrain from teaching progressive ideas and instead to adopt conservative perspectives. Columbia collapsed under the attack, but Harvard resisted and achieved some notable success in the courts.

Last year, the administration’s favored tactic was to use charges of antisemitism to justify large-scale funding cutoffs unless universities met conditions that had little if anything to do with the initial accusations. But the administration now seems to have changed its approach. It has charged Yale with giving preferential admission to Black and Hispanic applicants in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits universities from receiving federal funds in programs that engage in racial discrimination. The charges are legally weak and in normal times would be readily contested. But, in contrast to Harvard, it appears that Yale is instead seeking to negotiate some kind of deal with the Trump administration.

What might account for this stark contrast?

The answer lies in a little-known but massively important regulation proposed by the Office of Management and Budget. The regulation requires that virtually all federal grants, which had heretofore been awarded on the basis of scientific merit, be henceforth subject........

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