Trump’s Attempts to Control Higher Education Follow a Familiar Fascist Playbook |
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The United States is on the road to a form of neofascism that, if allowed to complete its course, will have long-lasting impacts on all aspects of society. Indeed, the Trump administration is carrying out a series of policies that target the very foundations of a free and open society — including an unrelenting assault on higher education and the U.S. education system in general. Higher education in particular seeks to nurture an environment that fosters independent thought, promotes thinking skills critical for democracy, and encourages inquisitive assessment of evidence for the purpose of promoting and disseminating the truth. At least, this has been the historical mission of universities, which is why they have always been targeted by reactionary forces with the intent of transforming them into pure ideological apparatuses of the fascist state. Following this pattern, Donald Trump has sought to bend universities to his will by cutting funding and forcing them to pledge support to his administration’s initiatives for reshaping higher education by signing a Compact for Academic Excellence that basically erodes institutional independence.
How successful has Trump’s fascist takeover of higher education been so far? How are universities responding? In the exclusive interview for Truthout that follows, Todd Wolfson, the president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), offers insights on the battle for the soul of American higher education in the age of Trumpism. Wolfson is an associate professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University.
C. J. Polychroniou: Trump’s reactionary agenda has spread across all aspects of U.S. society, including politics, economics, societal norms, culture, and the environment. His culture war tactics extend to reshaping higher education, which he claimed in a recent Truth Social post “has lost its way, and is now corrupting our Youth and Society with WOKE, SOCIALIST, and ANTI-AMERICAN ideology.” Now, it is not common for U.S. presidents to dictate what colleges and universities teach and whom they hire, so Trump’s assault on higher education is a clear indication that the country is descending into fascism. What sense do you make out of Trump’s crackdown on higher education, which he has tried to justify mainly as a response to antisemitism on campuses? Is it just because he perceives universities as having become too liberal or progressive? Or is there some deeper motive behind his neofascist actions?
Todd Wolfson: I would say that Trump’s attack on higher education is being driven by a couple of different ideological and material forces. First and foremost, authoritarian and fascist regimes historically have targeted various sectors of society. If we look at fascist Spain, fascist Italy, or Nazi Germany, or if we look at Victor Orbán’s Hungary and his fascist or illiberal regime, what we see are three sectors that are clearly always identified and targeted. One is the press, one is the court system, and the third is higher education. Higher ed is targeted because it’s an independent political force that has a critical role in the ideological formation of society and poses a threat to fascist or authoritarian ideology. So at one level, it’s true. This is a very old playbook that the Trump regime is using.
Another issue, in the American context, is that white voters — the Republican base — are more likely to vote Democrat if they go to college. So, in undermining college and making it so that less people attend, they are protecting their own ability to win elections. I think that’s also in play. And a corollary, and this is in Project 2025, is the desire of some aspects of white nationalists to have higher birth rates in white communities in the U.S. Project 2025 outlines how white women with a college degree are likely to have less children than white women without a college degree, so once again, this plays into their white replacement theory.
So I think all of those are reasons why the Trump administration has targeted and zeroed in on higher ed. And then there’s things like the protests on Gaza. Historically, college campuses are places where students protest and build power and force societies to look at themselves in the mirror. Great social change often comes from the leadership of young people, so they’re trying to crush dissent and campus protest, so that’s another aspect of this. There are probably many other reasons as well, but I think those are some reasons why the Trump administration has zeroed in on higher education.
It’s also important to note that this agenda has been in the works for decades. In the ’60s, Black Americans start getting broad access to free or highly subsidized public higher education, in particular the CUNY system in New York City and the University of California system were both free in the ’60s, and people of color were getting access to that free higher ed. American campuses were critical to,........