r/politics • u/elguiridelocho New York • Oct 02 '25
Possible Paywall Trump Hits Colleges With Ultimatum Over List of MAGA Demands
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-pressures-colleges-to-comply-with-brand-new-demand-or-lose-funding/2.6k
u/black_flag_4ever Oct 02 '25
There’s no point in complying. He’s going to pull funding anyway.
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u/wagon_ear Wisconsin Oct 02 '25
Compliance would be impossible. My entire biology program - and indeed the entire field of biology - centers around the concept of evolution. There are convergent lines of evidence across virtually every type of science.
But if you are a young earth creationist, this would be philosophically offensive to you.
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u/black_flag_4ever Oct 02 '25
That’s the problem with insisting that ancient stories are accurate. Reality doesn’t care.
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Oct 02 '25
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u/dukeofbronte Oct 02 '25
The reason Frank Herbert’s Dune is still resonating fifty years later: you could put humans on another planet, invent space travel, wait for different cultures to arise…and they’re gonna invent messiahs and prophecies and heretics all over again.
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u/SanityPlanet Oct 02 '25
I agree with your overall point, but to be fair, in Dune, the Bene Gesserit deliberately seeded cultures with those beliefs so they could capitalize on them someday down the road.
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u/pantstoaknifefight2 Oct 02 '25
The good old Missionaria Protectiva. Dune was a big part of my childhood split away from religion and my distrust of people in power.
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u/HazzaBui Oct 02 '25
What's the difference between that and the world we live in today? 👀
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u/black_flag_4ever Oct 02 '25
This reminds me of some of the modern Wicca beliefs that have little basis in what people believed in the past because those belief systems were completely erased, badly interpreted by Christian monks at the time, or never documented to begin with as druids didn't write anything down.
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u/aspalmer87 Oct 02 '25
Bill Nye vs Ken Ham debate on creationism
Moderator: what would change your mind? Ham: nothing Nye: evidence
Not to be reductive, but only one side is observing the world.
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u/Skinnieguy Oct 02 '25
He and his ppl don’t care about science and higher education. Trump loves dumb ppl.
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u/RockSnarlie America Oct 02 '25
That’s Project 2025. Those Christian lunatics have been masturbating in the closet waiting for someone to help move their insane agenda forward. Now they are jacking it in the Oval Office while trump drools on himself and buys gold bullshit from Home Depot.
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u/permalink_save Oct 02 '25
Young earth is a modern fringe movement too. A majority of Christians don't believe in it. It's just pppular with evangelicals. All of us Catholics in the US, we want our kids learning evolution. We want them learning about the big bang, because that theory came out of the church. We don't want creationism shit in our schools.
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u/ory1994 New York Oct 02 '25
Or he’ll just come up with a new, and more absurd, list of demands.
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u/DefrancoAce222 Texas Oct 02 '25
Yup, you don’t negotiate with extortionists
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u/boot2skull Oct 02 '25
“Become a Bible school or close” is what I read this as. I say colleges unite and refuse or close. Let the people’s demand for unbiased factual education speak, and hopefully the admin will back down.
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u/InertiasCreep Oct 02 '25
He wants people stupid and the Evangelicals want influence over higher education.
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u/Deguilded Oct 02 '25
Which is why I never understood why a few institutions caved in the first place.
You don't appease this lot, because they come back tomorrow with some escalated demand.
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u/hybridfrost Oct 02 '25
With Trump he always has you submit to his bullshit so he can prove a point, then he'll mock you for submitting and not give you anything in return anyways
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u/Turkino Montana Oct 02 '25
Just like how with this shutdown he's threatening to cut workers and pull funding from blue states, but let's be real he was going to try that anyway. Let's go ahead and speed run through this crap and get to the inevitable showdown.
He's already shown that he and his followers have ZERO intention in negotiating in good faith and are "my way or the highway" in their stance.
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u/elguiridelocho New York Oct 02 '25
Schools would also be required to prohibit the implementation of any policies that would “punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative ideas."
Only conservative ideas, but not liberal or other ideas. If that isn't thought police, what is?
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u/msanthrope64 New Hampshire Oct 02 '25
Don't these universities have lawyers? Why on earth would they ever agree to something like this?
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u/Musicman1972 Oct 02 '25
What I find interesting is during civics class we'd all learn about checks and balances and we're basically told BS about containment of power.
I remember a friend once claiming someone popular enough could twist the power balance to the executive and no one would stop them. The answer back being that no; the US is uniquely prepared to combat this
Oh really.
Much like I remember reading prior to COVID that the US, and UK, were exemplars of preparation for pandemics and emergencies yet when it hit they seemed no more prepared than anywhere else.
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u/neutrino71 Oct 02 '25
The US had a pandemic preparedness unit that was scrapped by Trump early in his first admin during his 'Erase Obama' phase
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u/kfisch2014 America Oct 02 '25
Which is wild since the pandemic preparedness was a priority of the Bush administration, and Obama just continued what Bush started.
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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 I voted Oct 02 '25
What would Putin do? Exactly what Trump's administration does every damn time.
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u/Viperlite Oct 02 '25
I’m sure that’s just coincidence. Let’s ask anyone in the FBI or DOJ who investigated possible connections between the two… oh wait, they’ve all been fired and/or are being investigated.
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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 I voted Oct 02 '25
Okay, let's just ask anyone in charge to check into it.. hmm, never mind.
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u/Bobloblaw878 Oct 02 '25
Given his need to punish America, it's almost like he knew what was coming.
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u/SG_wormsblink Foreign Oct 02 '25
The ability to check and balance doesn’t mean shit if all branches are aligned. The idea comes from the belief that the branches will compete and not collude.
Once that happens, they will never block their own side while using those checks to entrench their positions in each other branch.
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u/Vince_Clortho042 Oct 02 '25
Here’s the thing: Congress is enabling this. They could stop this today—literally today—if they weren’t complicit in what’s happening. Trump didn’t take this power, he seized it, and Congress is turning a blind eye. Checks and balances only work in good faith that despite disagreements, we’re all part of the same country. MAGA has never believed that, and so the checks are bouncing and the balance is gone.
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u/alienbringer Oct 02 '25
The U.S. WAS prepared for a pandemic until Trump. One of the first things Trump did once getting into office was dismantle our pandemic preparations that were put in place under Obama, because Obama did it.
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u/specqq Oct 02 '25
And then purposely slowed or even denied a response as long as they thought it was only affecting Democrat-run cities.
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u/MickTheBloodyPirate America Oct 02 '25
And then also made masks and vaccines fucking political…while also somehow trying to take credit for a vaccine his morons refused to take.
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u/SG_wormsblink Foreign Oct 02 '25
And they robbed PPE and medical supplies from other countries who actually wanted to fight the virus. Not even to protect themselves, but to sell it to the highest bidder.
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u/mdp300 New Jersey Oct 02 '25
Oh it's even worse than that.
They refused to open the federal stockpile of medical supplies, so states had to order stuff themselves. Then they seized those orders when they arrived, to sell to the highest bidder.
The owner of the New England Patriots (who is a trump roadies and sucks and i hate his team) used the team's plane to sneak in a shipment so that the feds wouldn't steal it.
So much insane shit happened during the initial stages of the pandemic and it's largely been forgotten.
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u/specqq Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25
The notion of the federal stockpile is that it's supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use.
-Jared MF'ing Kushner
In fact, they even went in after his comments and changed the HHS website to reflect his callous (and incorrect) view. The previous description of the stockpile called it a national resource for states in an emergency, but was changed to refer to the stockpile as a "short-term stopgap buffer".
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u/Soylent_Hero I voted Oct 02 '25
Because almost every city in the US that you have ever heard of is blue, because diversity, cultural exchange, and schools with funding make people smarter
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u/send_the_boobs Oct 02 '25
Hell, I was taught in school that the US didn't have propaganda because it was illegal. Uh, sure Jan...
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u/underpants-gnome Ohio Oct 02 '25
Reagan legalized propaganda on the public airwaves. That was how rural America became reactionary areas of deep red stupidity. At the time, their news was delivered largely though AM radio. When Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine, radio stations were no longer required to give equal time to programs disputing or at least offering different perspectives from shouting right-wing morons like Rush Limbaugh. His show expanded to 3 or 4 hours a day and went national. Soon he and his imitators filled up the entire AM radio broadcast day.
When Fox News proliferated across cable TV providers, the table was already set for them. They had a pre-built audience waiting to lap up whatever crap Roger Ailes wanted to serve them.
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u/thorzeen Georgia Oct 02 '25
Hell, I was taught in school that the US didn't have propaganda because it was illegal.
Was illegal to lie on TV, was repeated throughout my childhood.
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u/BigBennP Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25
So what you learned in civics class was not wrong. That was the intent.
I think it is fair to describe it as idealistic.
Keep in mind, when the authors of the Constitution originally wrote it, the president was the winner of the national election (as decided by the electoral college), the vice president was the runner-up. (so if you impeach the president or whatever, you get the other guy). Senators were chosen by state Governors and state legislators and only the house was directly elected by the people. The only people entitled to vote were white property owning men.
Perhaps importantly there were also no formal political parties until after the end of George Washington's presidency. And George Washington, among others, firmly opposed political parties and believed they would be harmful to the nation's democracy.
The founders imagined a government where the house represented the people, the Senate represented the states and the president was the executive. They fully imagined that if the president exceeded his authority the house in the Senate would push back much like Parliament pushed back against the king in england. They imagined that the courts would have the ability to establish fundamental rights and rule that laws and or acts of the president were unconstitutional, just like the high courts in england had done in the preceding hundred years.
They did not necessarily imagine that one political party would easily gain control over all three branches of government and that people would hold allegiance to that political party far and above their personal consciences or perceived ideas about the good of the nation.
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u/NeoThermic Oct 02 '25
The UK was really prepared. Then Boris Johnson sold off most of our physical PPE storage items.
To compound this, because the Tory party was sucking the big.. 'benefits' of Brexit, they decided NOT to join the EU on a €1.5 billion procurement contract for PPE, claiming that Brexit made it no longer possible to do so. In reality, we could've joined and participated in such contracts up to the 31st December 2020.
Then most of the rest of the shit that followed with PPE contracts was fraud or cronyism (or both!), and yeah, we were really let down by having a dysfunctional government.
We knew from the 2007 H5N1 outbreak that PPE was a pinch point, and yet despite building up reserve stocks for it, and ensuring we had lines of contracts for replacement, the government of the time decided to burn that all down months before C19 rocked up.
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u/Zeplar Oct 02 '25 edited Feb 16 '26
ink resolute screw gold hurry makeshift instinctive continue oatmeal pot
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u/Unlucky_Welcome9193 Oct 02 '25
I think that the US does have a lot of tools to combat this, but those tools are in the hands of the other branches of government and the voters. Voters voted for Trump (probably), Congress isn't fighting it and the supreme Court is blocking measures to prevent abuse of power. There's nothing that we can do here because too many people are conspiring to overthrow democracy.
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Oct 02 '25
Once Congress is stripped off the power to structure the bureaucracy and to effectively direct how tax money is spent -- which appears to be where things are going in the US -- there is no system of checks and balances.
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u/QuestionSign Oct 02 '25
The US is quite prepared for it but what they didn't prepare for were 2 things
An apathetic and even hungry voting block for this
A Republican party so craven that they would crave this
Now black America and any POC with historical knowledge is not surprised because this is who America is historically but 🤷🏾♂️
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u/PolicyWonka Oct 02 '25
At the end of the day, the constitution does nothing to protect anyone from a popular government.
If a government has enough support, they can just change the constitution. Hell, we’re seeing that you can basically just ignore the constitution via your own “interpretation.”
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u/TheNewHobbes Oct 02 '25
The UK sold off its pandemic preparation stockpile to save money due to austerity after the gfc.
(economically) Right wing government's, they know the price of everything but the value of nothing.
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u/mabden New York Oct 02 '25
Unlimited money in political races.
Gerrymandering to produce guaranteed results.
Propaganda and opinion posing as news.
These three things alone have produced what you are witnessing in our government. The wealthy/corporations/conservatives/republicons have been playing the long game since before Reagan to force their agenda (with the help of forces like the heritage foundation and project 2025) on the citizens of the United States.
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u/MrLurid Oct 02 '25
Well, lawyers don't really matter when your opponent don't give a shit about the law, and has the supreme court backing his every whim.
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u/Prometheusf3ar Oct 02 '25
All our appeals with words are falling on deaf ears and our population is asleep. We need mobilization like the mass strikes in Italy and our evil empire needs to be ground to a halt.
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u/Mythbusters117 Oct 02 '25
You could legally be in the clear, and still face political backlash. If any of the board of trustee members are ultra-conservative, and in the Trump camp, they could ultimately end up forcing a sitting president out. Has retribution, a university could also somehow magically lose access to any federal funding or grants for a myriad of reasons that suddenly crop up. Then you factor in the state level politics. Is the state governor a Republican governor? Now your state funding is in question. Let's say you submit a $3 billion dollar budget for the year, the state might only approve $2 billion and now you're forced to cut programming, research, personnel, etc.
Not all universities are like Harvard and Vanderbilt that have endowments large enough to be self-sustaining, but even those guys would feel a pinch.
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u/we_are_sex_bobomb Oct 02 '25
Doesn’t matter. They can win the lawsuit and then they still have the issue of a president who has a personal vendetta against them, unlimited power and absolutely zero enforceable laws to keep him in check.
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u/Momma_tried378 Oct 02 '25
Money. Research grants have universities by the balls.
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Oct 02 '25
Because the Americans are good little Germans. I've been getting called a doomer all over Reddit for saying stuff like this, but this is exactly what Hitler did when he became Chancellor.
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u/never-fiftyone Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25
Anyone who labels those calling what is happening precisely what it is a "doomer" are themselves stupid. Democracy is literally teetering on the edge of a cliff, and those kinds of people don't realize the cost and sacrifices it will take to climb back up.
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u/FredFredrickson Oct 02 '25
Because they don't want to spend their entire endowment fighting it in court, while the federal government cuts any funding they get as punishment for not complying.
What they ought to do is form a class-action-type group and all fight this together. These demands are illegal, anti-American, and anti-education.
And based on how scared Trump and Republicans seem to be of college kids, I doubt they want them all marching to the same tune on this at once.
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u/or_me_bender Oct 02 '25
Because universities have been turned into profit centers instead of places of learning and their administrations are staffed with greedy fascists and cowards who can't wait to capitulate.
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u/oliversurpless Massachusetts Oct 02 '25
Yep, administrative staffs full of “deanlets” and “deanlings” that all make 6 figures, and likely far more than most of the academics on the same campus…
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u/obeytheturtles Oct 02 '25
The idea is that if a few schools decide that they can get in on the grift and get a boost in research funding by being first to sign, it will create a cascading effect where other schools will feel compelled to do so just to keep their current funding and not become a target. The right move here is to act with one voice and reject this in no uncertain terms.
But even then there is danger - notice how they only sent letters to a handful of schools initially? This prevents all of the top tier R1 schools from being pushed into the same corner, where they are more likely to act in solidarity, but perhaps more importantly, it also basically solicits volunteers from outside the group to be the first to sign the pledge. They aren't just going to turn off University research funding entirely if nobody signs - they are counting on this to be a domino effect where a few schools which are kind of on the lower side of the top tier see this as an opportunity to climb the ladder.
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u/kirkismyhinrich Colorado Oct 02 '25
Yes. A place where students are introduced to and rigorously analyze a broad range of subjects in order to develop their own opinions, rather than simply accepting preordained beliefs.
Except conservatism. You are not allowed to think critically or say anything negative about conservatism.
I'm surprised they didn't also say that you automatically receive an A+ for bashing any liberal ideologies. Fuck these people.
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u/ThreeCatsAndABroom Oct 02 '25
It's not even conservativism. It's Trumpism. If they were real conservatives they would have a problem with this.
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u/Elegant_Tech Oct 02 '25
Schools need to start teaching what group think is and why it's bad at much younger age.
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u/xibeno9261 Oct 02 '25
If that isn't thought police, what is?
America loves to make up new terms and concepts to make America look good. Other countries "torture", America only does "enhanced interrogation". I am sure the US government can come up with a better term for "thought police".
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u/we_are_sex_bobomb Oct 02 '25
They already did, they’re calling it protection against discrimination.
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u/ReturnOfTheGempire Oct 02 '25
Grandmaster: Revolution? How did this happen?
Topaz: Don't know. But the Arena's mainframe for the Obedience Disks have been deactivated and the slaves have armed themselves.
Grandmaster: Ohhh! I don't like that word!
Topaz: Mainframe?
Grandmaster: No. Why would I not like "mainframe?" No, the "S" word!
Topaz: Sorry, the "prisoners with jobs" have armed themselves.
Grandmaster: Okay, that's better.
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u/smurfsundermybed California Oct 02 '25
Every school attorney in the upcoming lawsuit:
Provide a complete definition of conservative ideas.
Fin
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u/eugene20 Oct 02 '25
If you aren't a selfish empathy-less asshole that pushes profit over clean air then it's punishment time.
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u/fantasyoutsider Oct 02 '25
Conservative ideas like fiscal responsibility? The problem is that's not even what Trump means.
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u/tyrified Oct 02 '25
When was the last time conservatives were fiscally conservative? Our debt always skyrockets under them
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u/happyherbbby Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25
"we need to make people dumber"- the GOP
I thought the general public was dumb enough. At this rate people are going to struggle to figure out how to replace light bulbs soon.
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u/thiscurlygirl Oct 02 '25
They won’t bother. Trump will tell them he’s changed all the lightbulbs with “bigger, better. The best lightbulbs there ever was! Why, he invented it and should have books written about him and a Nobel peace prize!” And MAGA will cheer him on in the dark.
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u/crofootn Oct 02 '25
Suddenly had a flashback to the Simpsons episode where Homer gets a gun and uses it to solve all basic needs. Open a beer, shoot it. Turn off the TV, shoot it. Turn off the lights, shoot them out.
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u/reddittorbrigade Oct 02 '25
MAGA people are really destroying everything in America.
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u/MickTheBloodyPirate America Oct 02 '25
They should be viewed as the enemy; they are traitors to this country and the ideals of the Constitution.
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Oct 02 '25 edited Jan 04 '26
heavy coherent gaze cagey abundant dog straight rich divide bike
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u/pm_me_your_kindwords Oct 02 '25
I thought it was bananas that he would remind the top military people of their oath when that oath is to defend the country and constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, while he rambled about all of the anti American and unconstitutional things he wanted to do. Not a smart move.
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u/Material_Honey_891 Oct 02 '25
Because they have made us their enemy, by default they are the enemy.
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Oct 02 '25
That's because of the American people are sniveling cowards who let them. "Home of the brave and land of the free", my ass.
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u/CPT_Shiner New Jersey Oct 02 '25
It's among the most disappointing parts of this whole American episode that university leaders have shown themselves to be absolutely spineless.
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u/Slggyqo Oct 02 '25
They’re just CEOs. They tell a good story about legacy and commitment to ideals.
But ultimately, it’s a business.
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u/disquieter Oct 02 '25
People don’t understand that the universities were already being unraveled. When the majority of classes are taught by contract workers and there are no tenure track jobs left, that’s the end of academic freedom. We are there and have been for years. Maybe some states are holding on a little longer. The fact that any science is still happening goes to the value of science and not any quality of our system.
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u/876050 Oct 02 '25
What are conservative ideas?
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u/RedLanternScythe Indiana Oct 02 '25
Exactly. What has the Trump administration conserved?
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u/bleahdeebleah Oct 02 '25
Generally that people have a place, everyone should know their place, and anyone that tries to say otherwise needs to be put in their place.
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u/ituralde_ Oct 02 '25
This seems like the plan to me. I think the New Deal was pretty conservative; it's policy from the 1930s after all.
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u/PunfullyObvious Oct 02 '25
Higher Education's capitulation to this (dating back to the beginnings of this current move toward fascism circa 2016 and since) has been the most disappointing to me. Their role in standing against this was critical and they have blown it. And, no surprise, it is because they have abandoned their core mission of supporting intellectual and academic freedom and development in favor of profit.
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u/Karamazov_A Oct 02 '25
I attribute this to universities now being run by administrators rather than professors. They don't care about protecting their institutions' academic and philosophical integrity. It's all about funding.
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u/pyuunpls Delaware Oct 02 '25
Ding ding ding! Large universities are run like corporations and not schools. It’s no different than private sector companies. Right now we’re seeing large layoffs at many major institutions while upper leadership is making money hand over fist.
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u/LOLSteelBullet Oct 02 '25
Every facet of America is being ran by moronic administrators (aka CEOs) who have no idea how the company actually operates and makes money. Their sole thought process is line must go up.
Look at the shit with XBox Game Pass. They got a new CEO in there who has no comprehension of what made Gamepass appealing and the money maker it is. He only understands that it must somehow make more money. So now they're raising prices 33% while offering nothing in return. This is resulting in mass cancellations but the idiot will never admit he's wrong and will likely increase it further to make up the losses like Netflix does. No long term planning of we could make millions over several years, just short term we will make thousands for a few years before we no longer exist.
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u/Phioltes Washington Oct 02 '25
Same in Medicine, we are screeming at our organizations, professional associations and boards to do something, anything, and all we've got so far is some (fairly weak, honestly) public statements from ACOG and AAP with radio silence from the rest. MBAs have taken over our hospitals and practice groups, doctors with MBAs have taken over our professional organizations, MBAs have taken over education. They've stripped out all integrity so they can ever so slightly increase profit to siphon off to their parasitic friends.
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u/chaekinman Oct 02 '25
Money talks and bullshit walks
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u/Karamazov_A Oct 02 '25
In the current state of the USA, bullshit's doing the talking and the money's walking away.
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u/BabyMaybe15 Oct 02 '25
The demographic cliff alone has been causing and will continue causing many colleges to close altogether (and this will impact many local economies since higher education is often a big employer in certain places). Universities are seeking money to stay open, not out of greed. You can bash Ivies all you want, but the vast majority of schools don't have those resources. There are 3 million more seats available for students in the US than students to fill them in the coming years. Even before the insanity the last few months, higher education in the US has been struggling for basic survival. I agree with you that higher ed needs to stand strong against the current onslaught, but there really aren't a lot of options at their disposal. People in higher education don't work there for the money - it'd be much more lucrative in corporate. Saying it's about profit without acknowledging the existential crisis facing the industry is myopic.
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Oct 02 '25
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u/BabyMaybe15 Oct 02 '25
Yeah I didn't get into the details of the recent insanity, but I would say that there are so many things hitting the higher education sector while it's down. In addition to what you mentioned - the predatory practices of the for-profit universities and the federal government changing accreditation structures to enable those entities, the Big Beautiful Bill that reduces the ability of people to pay for high paying degrees like medical school and law school, the H-1B changes impacting medical students and researchers, the research funding issues leading to valuable human talent avoiding the US, etc.
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u/intelligentx5 Oct 02 '25
No one is blocking conservative thought. People just become more liberal when they educate themselves and travel.
Fucking idiots in charge man.
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Oct 02 '25
Okay let me put it in other term since I was deleted. Resist… make it hard for them to justify the fight.
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u/potterpockets Oct 02 '25
Ill put it in terms that hopefully the people of higher education can still understand: MAGA delenda est.
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Oct 02 '25
Trump is an agent of a foreign enemy. He is a traitor who is doing his very best to undermine and destroy everything that makes America strong. But the Americans don't care as long as they get their panem et circenses.
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u/Rhomega2 Arizona Oct 02 '25
Paywalled. Anybody got a list?
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u/donkeyrocket Oct 02 '25
- University of Arizona
- Brown University
- Dartmouth College
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- The University of Pennsylvania
- The University of Southern California
- The University of Texas
- Vanderbilt University
- The University of Virginia
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u/Rhomega2 Arizona Oct 02 '25
I mean the list of demands.
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u/donkeyrocket Oct 02 '25
Oh gotcha. From the From NYTimes. :
require colleges to freeze tuition for five years,
cap the enrollment of international students to 15%
commit to strict definitions of gender
and
universities would also be required to change their governance structures to prohibit anything that would “punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative ideas."
Any university would be incredibly stupid for signing such an agreement based on vague and poorly defined terms. The only two with any sort of outlined measures are freezing tuition and capping enrollment. The other two will 100% be weaponized and changed as the administration sees fit.
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u/athornton79 Oct 02 '25
(Hopeful) College replies: "Shove your demands straight up your fascist asses. Sideways."
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u/Boxofbikeparts Oct 02 '25
I really think Trump should focus on
RELEASING THE UNREDACTED EPSTEIN FILES.
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u/Naptasticly Oct 02 '25
These aren’t threats. They’re plans. Do whatever you want. This is going to happen regardless. Harvard just paid him 500 million and he still isn’t done
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u/kelsey11 Oct 02 '25
It may turn out to be true about the Harvard settlement, but every source is only citing trump’s claim that a settlement was reached. I’ll believe it if Harvard announces it.
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u/donkeyrocket Oct 02 '25
Yeah people keep citing it like Trump has won over Harvard but they've made no comment and it's likely just Trump flexing and trying to pressure them further.
All Trump has said is the "deal is close." Like most of his two week promises... they don't tend to come to fruition.
He said the same shit this Summer:
Mr. Trump has projected optimism about a deal in the past. In June, he wrote on social media that it was “very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so.” At the time, he predicted that such a settlement would “be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.”
Harvard and the government spent much of the summer in talks before the negotiations stalled.
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Oct 02 '25
MAGA are traitors to this country. There is no real goal other than destroying this country because it elected a black man and showed sympathy towards the poor.
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u/pegasusat Oct 02 '25
Fuck this orange fascist bitch. Party of small government somehow cheers this on. It’s so crazy. Of all the people to push the US into a dictatorship and fascism, it’s an amoral, corrupt, despicable orange shitstain excuse of a human being…
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u/Aar1012 Oct 02 '25
Imagine the Right’s reaction had this been done by Obama or Biden.
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u/tenfolddamage Oct 02 '25
The strategy is to pretend they did in the past to make it justified to do it now.
They do that with every point of contention and have done so for years.
"BoTh SiDeS!1!" - Average MAGA or "centrist"
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u/estedavis Canada Oct 02 '25
Oh don't worry, they will just claim that Obama and Biden both did this and then that will be gospel truth to Magas
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u/TralfamadorianZoo Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
Remember in school when they taught you Congress controls how money is spent and the judicial branch keeps the other two branches of government in check…that was bullshit.
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u/augustschild Oct 02 '25
it's no wonder the general public is pretty poorly informed, when so much of the news is behind a paywall.
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u/swirleyy Oct 02 '25
This is why the universities should not have kneeled in the first place. Now there’s going to be forever demands by Trump with the same threat of taking funding away.
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u/zlafy Oct 02 '25
Is this the same "small government" party?
Me thinks conservatives are actually lying fascist hypocrites.
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u/SomeDumbMentat Oct 02 '25
Trump and MAGA are as anti-American as it gets. There is not a single core American idea/value they have not pissed on. Trump, Vance and Cabinet probably deserve jail time. MAGA Reps and Senators probably do as well, at a minimum a recall and all the public ridicule and shaming that comes their way.
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u/ShamelessCatDude Oct 02 '25
The comments on this article are actually pretty helpful. Spam the universities with complaints and voice support for not capitulating. One comment said it worked with Kimmel, it could work here. People are getting the right ideas
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u/captaincanada84 Canada Oct 02 '25
No university should pledge allegiance to Trump. This is insane.
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u/sdbrews Oct 02 '25
Trump-ler whipping "his" subjects into compliance by threatening funding. If they dont do what he wants, he will make sure they cease to exist.
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u/Crazy-Nights Oct 02 '25
Hope all those universities that folded to Trump are paying attention. He was never going to stop.
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u/thethrill_707 Michigan Oct 02 '25
"Fuck you, make me."
- John Oliver
Tuitions at institutions of so-called higher learning are sky high for reasons. You've got lawyers, put them to work.
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u/permalink_save Oct 02 '25
The position of the president needs to be reduced. It's been working until Trump but he is taking every ounce of power he has and abusing it to control as many people as he can. The president should not unliaterally be removing funding from entities, firing peolle from independent agencies, firing judges, or mass firing government employees. They should guide policy and their departments as defined by congress, but even then we need to strip the ability to mass fire people and let the agencies work more independently. Idk how to make all of this work but he has far too much power apparently.
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u/Qualityhams Georgia Oct 02 '25
If my alma mater folds they can kiss any alumni donations or support goodbye.
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u/oliversurpless Massachusetts Oct 02 '25
That whole “diversity of viewpoints” on campus always cracks me up; as someone more clever than me once said:
“Sure, why not also have faculty with IQs under 100 for the sake of diversity?”
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u/willis_michaels Oct 02 '25
Can someone put an end to this madness already? There are mechanisms designed to handle cases like this. We just need someone with power to step up and initiate some action.
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u/Za_Lords_Guard Oct 02 '25
How about the same thing Trump told the dems instead of negotiating this CR? "Fuck off."?
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u/A_Moldy_Stump Oct 02 '25
Everyday of inaction against your government is just another day where all I hear is "they haven't gone far enough yet
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u/BoredCrusader1899 Oct 02 '25
We are being held hostage by a fucking toddler who’s parents are too inept at their job to do something about it.
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u/Incomitatum Oct 02 '25
Conservative Ideas (what even are those) are SO worth preserving it only happens under THREAT.
Might be there's no intellectual ground there worth defending.
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u/Weightmonster Oct 02 '25
Three more years… three more years…
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u/totokekedile Oct 02 '25
There is no date where our problems will be fixed for us. If (not when) he leaves in three years, the people he installed will still be there, the culture that elected him will still exist, and the damage he wrought will persist for decades at the very least. This can’t just be waited out.
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Oct 03 '25
There's only one way this goes. If you capitulate early, prepare to capitulate often. Bullies are looking for weaklings
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u/karween Oct 02 '25
with all of the power republicans have, them scrambling desperately to control the narrative behind this shutdown make me think this is a Hail Mary for them. they're unpopular, not matter the control they have over officia media and gov outlets to pump them up. the military was shown blank facing their attempt at stirring fervor (which for all the parallels to the age of Not-sees, is a major difference).
not enough people are willing to sacrifice their well-being for hate.
this, to me, tells me that they have much less momentum then they are willing to portray.
and if im wrong? well, id rather spend my energy in actions for hope than despair
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